Opinion ID: 1933405
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Berlin Petition

Text: Petitioners from Berlin challenge the subdivision of an initial three-member district, comprised of the town of Berlin and the city of Barre, into a one-member district completely within Barre City, and a two-member district that included the town of Berlin and a portion of Barre City. The gist of petitioners' argument is that Berlin should have been placed in a one-member district with a small part of Barre so as to assure that at least one of the three representatives of the initial district would represent the interest of Berlin's rural, small town voters. Petitioners acknowledge that, in any scenario, residents of Barre and Berlin would have to be joined in a representative district. They believe they are entitled to be part of a one-member district composed of approximately 1500 Barre residents and 2500 Berlin residents. They point out that during the last decade the population of Berlin increased from 2454 residents to 2561 residents, while Barre's population fell from 9824 residents to 9482 residents. Thus, Barre has a population that would support approximately two and one-half representatives, while Berlin's population would support approximately two-thirds of a representative. Petitioners argue that, given these numbers and the fact that the residents of their rural community have virtually nothing in common with Barre residents, it is fundamentally unfair to disenfranchise them by placing them in a two-member district with a majority of Barre residents. We disagree. The residents of Berlin are not disenfranchised simply because they make up a minority of their two-member representative district. Even in situations involving racial or political groups, proportional representation is not constitutionally required. See Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U.S. at 132, 106 S.Ct. at 2810 (one cannot presume that the winning candidate will entirely ignore the voters who supported the losing candidate; a group's electoral power is not unconstitutionally diminished by the simple fact of an apportionment scheme that makes winning elections more difficult). Members of a group are disenfranchised only when they are denied an opportunity to effectively influence the election results by securing the attention of the winning candidate. Id. at 132-33, 106 S.Ct. at 2810-11. There has been no such showing here. Ironically, petitioners acknowledge that approximately 1500 Barre residents would have to be joined with Berlin residents in any single-member district. They argue that those 1500 will not be disenfranchised because their interests will be represented by the other two Barre representatives. This argument is untenable. If the lack of common interests would preclude placing 5000 Barre residents with Berlin, it would also preclude placing 1500 Barre residents with Berlin. Stripped of the disenfranchisement aspect of their claim, petitioners are left with the argument that placing Berlin and Barre residents in the same representative district violates Vermont's statutory criteria because the two communities have no common interests. [15] The master found that Barre and Berlin are in separate school districts, that the two towns do not share any essential governmental services, that they have distinct types of governmental structures, resulting in a much higher tax rate in Barre, and that, unlike Berlin, Barre has an urban residential pattern with a relatively high population density. On the other hand, the master found that there is a network of roads connecting the two communities, that both communities have large commercial areas which serve residents from both towns, that many residents from each community work in the other community, that there are state offices in each community that serve the residents of both communities, that the regional hospital and airport serve both communities, that both Berlin and Barre are members of the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission and the Central Vermont Waste District, and that the governing bodies of both municipalities are currently meeting to address common issues and problems. In short, there is ample evidence of common interest between the town of Berlin and the city of Barre in support of the creation of the Washington 4 representative district. We find no statutory violation.