More on the Kinston NC nanny case

More on Attorney General Holder treating southern blacks like children. Although the majority of registered voters in the town of Kinston are black, they don't vote in proportion to their registration, therefore they are considered the "minority" and apparently in deep need of nannying.

This item appears in James Taranto's column (Oct. 21).

. . . the Aug. 17 letter in which Loretta King acting assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, informed the Kinston's lawyers of the decision:
According to the 2000 Census, the City of Kinston has a total population of 23,688 people, of whom 14,837 (62.6%) are African-American. The total voting age population is 17,906, of whom 10,525 (58.8%) are African-American. The American Community Survey for 2005-2007 estimates the total population to be 22,649, of whom 14,967 (66.6%) are African-American. As of October 31, 2008, the city has 14,799 registered voters, of whom 9,556 (64.6%) are African-American.

Although black persons comprise a majority of the city's registered voters, in three of the past four general municipal elections, African Americans comprised a minority of the electorate on election day; in the fourth , they may have been a slight majority. For that reason, they are viewed as a minority for analytical purposes. Minority turnout is relevant to determining whether a change under Section 5 [of the Voting Rights Act] is retrogressive.

Black voters have had limited success in electing candidates of choice during recent municipal elections.

The letter does not allege any effort to suppress the black vote. Assuming the absence of such efforts, the reason that "black voters have had limited success in electing candidates of choice" is that so many of them have not bothered to vote!

The Justice Department's position, then, is that the Voting Rights Act requires the department to intervene on behalf of the political preferences that it imputes to people who cannot be troubled to go to the polls. This may well be a correct reading of the law--in which case, it's a screwy law.

Also, it's quite possible that black voters in Kinston didn't go to the polls because there was no one running for whom they wished to vote. Here we are electing city council members soon, and I don't recognize a single name, haven't followed the issues, and my vote will just be a wild guess (unless I start doing my duty as an informed voter). There are many reasons for low voter turn out--youth, old age, and disinterest probably being the big three.