The Supreme Court today let stand a ruling that the at-large system used in Norfolk, Va., city council elections violates the rights of black voters. A federal appeals court panel last Aug. 18 ordered the city to switch to a single-district election system that will ``remedy the vote dilution arising out of the at-large election system.'' The Norfolk City Council has seven members, elected to staggered four-year terms. Elections for three or four of the council seats are held every two years. Candidates with the most votes citywide win, and do not need a majority of the votes cast. A group of black voters and the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sued in 1983, contending that the at-large system used since 1918 illegally blunted the political clout of black voters. Norfolk, one of Virginia's largest cities, is 35 percent black in population. Blacks also comprise 35 percent of the city's registered voters. The city council did not have a black member until 1968, and since then has had one black member most years. The NAACP and black voters who sued said if city council members were elected from seven single-member districts, black voters would be in the majority in three of the seven districts. The city's voting dispute reached the nation's highest court once before, and in 1986 was sent back to lower courts for more study. U.S. District Judge J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. in Norfolk ruled in 1988 that the at-large election system did not violate the federal Voting Rights Act, but a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his ruling. The panel, by a 2-1 vote, said the at-large system gives black voters ``less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the electoral process and to elect representatives of their choice.'' The panel said those who sued ``do not seek proportional representation, and the act does not require it.'' But it said the lack of success blacks have had in winning more ``token representation'' on the city council show the existence of ``white bloc voting ... in Norfolk.'' The appeals court panel ordered Clarke to block all future at-large elections and to require the city to come up with a new election system in a ``reasonable, specified time'' to be reviewed under Voting Rights Act standards. ``If the city fails to enact a legal plan, (Clarke) should prepare a single-district plan for the conduct of future elections,'' the appeals court panel said. The full 4th Circuit court split 5-5 in refusing to review the three-judge panel's decision. The panel's decision was held in abeyance pending today's action by the Supreme Court. The panel's ruling that the city elections system must change now will take effect. In their appeal, city officials said the August decision forcing a change ``is nothing more than a decision to require ... proportional representation.'' ``If that ruling is correct,'' the appeal said, ``then all at-large election systems are imperiled.'' Asked for its views, the Bush administration told the court to reject the city's appeal. ``Although the court of appeals' analysis is not without flaws, the court's errors ... either do not affect the outcome of the case orare too closely tied to its particular facts to be of general significance,'' Justice Department lawyers said. The case is Norfolk vs. Collins, 89-989.
