Orange County NC Website
/Ma (.k�nKr <br />INFORMATION ABOUT MULTI MEMBER OR <br />OTHER UNUSUAI, COUNTY COMMISSIONER <br />ELECTION SYSTEMS. <br />There are at least four counties in North Carolina that elect county commissioners using <br />one form or another of multi member or otherwise unusual districts election systems. Each of <br />these election methods was designed and implemented in response to litigation or threatened <br />litigation under the Voters Rights Act. Generally the contention was that the method of electing <br />the board of county commissioners had the effect of denying black voters an equal opportunity to <br />elect candidates of their choice. The election systems devised and implemented, either by local <br />act or by court order, resulted in a limited voting system or a multi member district system. <br />There is no county in North Carolina that elects its board of commissioners by the cumulative <br />voting method. Limited voting is a form of modified at -large voting in which each voter gets <br />fewer votes to cast than there are seats to be filled; the effect is to prevent the majority from <br />capturing all the seats and to allow the minority to elect some of its candidates, <br />Isg: F:\Lisa \orangecounty \R.esponse to questions raised at May 5 BOCC mtg.doc <br />