Opinion ID: 481732
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Numerical Harm.

Text: 84 While the final vote totals of the elections considered by the district court do not indicate that the elections would have been different had the city voters not participated, the numbers do reveal the potentially decisive role the city voters play in the elections. This voting power in turn creates the non-numerical harm discussed in the next section. 85 Of the 14 contested elections considered by the lower court, 7 would have had different winners had the city voted more heavily for the loser. This is most clearly seen in the 1972 Democratic primary runoff, in which the victor, Mr. Beasley, carried the county by only 15 votes (out of almost 6,000); had the city residents preferred Beasley's opponent by 16 or more votes, the victor would have been a candidate who did not carry the county vote. As it turned out, Beasley took almost 60% of the city vote, and won with what appeared to be a comfortable margin. 86 The city and the county clearly have divergent concerns and preferences. In the 1976 Democratic primary runoff, for instance, the city voters supported Mr. Salter by 72%, while only 55% of the county supported him. It is not implausible that the city voters would prefer one candidate and the county voters another. 87 Even when the city and county voters tend to agree about the relative rankings of candidates, the city votes can still effect the election results by creating an artificial momentum or an appearance of a solid electoral lead. In the 1976 Democratic primary, for instance, Mr. Salter had a less than 200 vote edge over his closest opponent in the three way contest, in terms of county votes; however, when the city votes were included, Mr. Salter's edge increased to over 500 votes. The larger edge may well have contributed to Mr. Salter's victory in the runoff that followed. Another election, the Democratic primary of 1972, illustrated by the following chart, demonstrates this problem: 88 Candidate City Vote County Vote Total Vote --------- --------- ----------- ---------- Beasley 52.4% 37.7% 41.0% Johnson 28.9% 32.7% 31.9% Hoomes 18.7% 29.5% 27.1% --------- ----------- ---------- TOTAL 100% 100% 100% 89 Plaintiffs' Exhibit 6 at 2. If only the county vote was counted, Beasley and Johnson would have been very close going into the runoff. However, because the city vote went so heavily for Beasley, the final vote totals showed Beasley with an almost 10 point lead, instead of the 5 point lead he held in the county. In the actual runoff, Beasley took the county by only 15 votes. I cannot say with any confidence that Beasley would have won without the boost of the city votes in the original primary. 90 While much of this is admittedly speculative, the data in the record does show that the city could easily control the outcome of an election. This potential creates and contributes to the non-numerical impact of the city votes on the county school board. 91