ATLANTA– A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Georgia can hold statewide elections for its five-member commission that regulates utilities. That overturned a lower court judge who found that statewide elections illegally diluted the black vote.
The ruling is important beyond Georgia’s Public Service Commission because it could help protect certain statewide elections in other states subject to racial discrimination scrutiny under the Voting Rights Act. It could also set limits for a new wave of voting rights lawsuits after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a key portion of the law in an Alabama case this year.
In August 2022, U.S. District Judge Steven Grimberg had ordered Georgia’s commissioners elected by district, the first time a statewide voting system has been overturned by a federal judge. But a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Grimberg went too far.
“Georgia chose this electoral format to protect critical policy interests and there is no evidence or allegation that race was a motivating factor in this decision,” Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch wrote for the unanimous panel. “Based on the facts of this case, we conclude that plaintiffs’ new relief petition fails because Georgia’s chosen form of government for the PSC is afforded protection by federalism and our precedents.”
Plaintiffs described the ruling as a sanction for discrimination. Grimberg had found in statewide elections that black-favored candidates were being illegally handicapped, and that such candidates would have a better chance if only voters in a district chose each candidate, making it possible to win at least one district with a black majority.
“This ruling is yet another act of continued discrimination against Black voters in Georgia,” Brionte McCorkle, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters and one of the four plaintiffs, said in a statement. “Voters should have the opportunity to vote for a public service commissioner who responds to their needs and represents their community. Instead, millions of voters are being denied the right to maintain outdated and unfair election practices.”
It was not immediately clear whether the plaintiffs would appeal further. Another accuser, minister and political activist James ‘Major’ Woodall, vowed that “the fight is far from over and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to get the relief we seek.”
If the ruling stands, three of Georgia’s five committee seats could be awarded in 2024. Commissioners typically serve staggered six-year terms, but elections for Commissioners Fitz Johnson and Tim Echols were postponed from 2022 by Grimberg’s ruling. Johnson and Echols had each already won the GOP nomination.
A third Republican, Commissioner Tricia Pridemore, would be elected as early as 2024. State law requires commissioners to live in certain districts, but they can operate statewide.
Keeping statewide elections increases the odds that all five seats will remain in Republican hands, as they have been for years. Some Democrats who want elections by district would likely look less favorably on utilities. The commission determines how much Georgia Power Co. and other regulated utilities may bill millions of ratepayers, and which power plants and other facilities the utilities may spend on.
It was not immediately clear on Friday whether parties would nominate new candidates, or whether the 2022 nominees would hold. It is also unclear whether postponed elections will take place in November 2024, when turnout will be highest, or at some other time. No statewide offices other than the Public Service Commission are planned for 2024.
The appeals court said the lawsuit should fail because the plaintiffs had not proposed a plan to remedy discrimination while preserving a statewide election system, and said courts cannot impose a new form of government as part of a remedy against the Voting Rights Act .
“Plaintiffs’ new proposal is that we dismantle Georgia’s statewide PSC system and replace it with an entirely new district system,” the court wrote. “But we’ve never gone that far.”
The panel also cited previous cases where at-large elections for judges were upheld, saying a district system could lead to commissioners favoring their own districts over statewide concerns.
“If each commissioner represented only one district, important utility regulation issues – such as the location of energy and infrastructure – could become a zero-sum game between commissioners tied to their districts, rather than a joint effort to achieve the best result for the region. the entire state,” the court wrote.
Plaintiffs said the current commission is unresponsive to Black voters, including lower-income people who pay high utility bills.