News

City is not getting its way in Raleigh

By Bill Moss, Published: October 17, 2023

The road to plurality elections for council elections in three Henderson County cities has been longer and more complicated than anyone would have predicted, thanks to the sausage grinder in Raleigh.

And now that the end is in sight, it’s clear that the Hendersonville City Council will pan the result.

State Sen. Tim Moffitt said Tuesday that other counties wanted to get aboard the bill he filed moving city elections from odd- to even-numbered years and that he expected the “omnibus bill” to pass the Senate soon.

Moving city elections to even years prompted the Hendersonville City Council to ask Moffitt to also change the elections from a majority to plurality elections, eliminating primaries. (Had If they kept majority elections, cities would have seen primaries move from October to March.) The council also wanted filing for city elections to remain in July as it is now. That won’t happen either, Moffitt said. Although he said he’s open to discussion in the future, the bill as drafted sets filing for all offices — local, state and federal — Dec. 4-15.

At its Oct. 5 meeting, the City Council adopted a motion asking the Legislature to set the city’s filing period in July 2024, to no avail.

“So now that means when you go to vote in the 2024 presidential election and you’ve got that big long ballot, you're gonna find the City Council at the very end,” Councilman Jerry Smith told people at a “Council Conversations” forum last week. “Personally, I think that's a bad idea, because City Council is a nonpartisan election. I don't think it should be included with partisan elections. … People who are running for City Council for election in November 2024 are going to have to file in about six weeks. … None of this was requested by a majority of council.”

Mayor pro tem Lyndsey Simpson said in the Oct. 5 council meeting that some voters, and potential candidates, had been confused by the changes.

“I think it's important to note that none of these changes have been done to stop anyone from running for City Council,” she said. “Everyone that is sitting up at this table is in the exact same boat as everybody that's out there. The General Assembly keeps changing things. It's nothing that we've requested. It's nothing that staff has requested, and we still have the same questions that you do.”

Moffitt said the Henderson County Board of Elections requested that qualifying for all offices be at the same time — Dec. 4-15.

“Getting everybody in alignment is easiest for any community and from an elections administration standpoint,” he said. “No one likes change. Change is difficult but we all survive.”