Of all the stories coming out of New Orleans lately, this one irritates me the most: The NAACP is trying to block mayor and city council elections scheduled for April 22, arguing that too many displaced individuals will not be able to vote. Since the displaced people are mostly black, this means the election, if held, will discriminate against them.
There is some merit to this argument, but it is wrong on so many other levels that the NAACP is insane to pursue it. The NAACP is petitioning a federal court, arguing that the election is illegal because it will leave too many voters out. Now, I have lived in a democratic society my entire life, and I have never before heard anyone argue that it is against the law for a city to hold a general election, especially one mandated in the city charter. Since when is it illegal to hold an election in America? The election has already been postponed once!
Imagine two athletes are about to compete in a sprint. Then, suppose one of the referees in the race says the race is unfair because it is too short a distance and favors one runner over the other. The referee argues that the race should be lengthened to make it fairer. So far so good. But here’s the catch: the referee declines to say exactly how long the race should be. Instead, he intends to end the race when his favorite racer is in the lead, no matter when that happens.
This is exactly what the NAACP is doing. It wants to delay the elections, not to a specific date, but to some time in the future when there are enough black people back in New Orleans to make the electorate 50% African-American.
This strategy is very close to fixing an election. How else to describe a legal effort to block an election until the ethnic balance of the electorate suits your druthers? One of the glorious things about an American election is that, come election day, no one really knows who is going to show up. This and the many other unknowns keep elections out of the reach of schemers who try to manipulate the democratic process. In New Orleans, more than in any big city election in recent history, no one knows who will vote. That is the beauty of the thing, and the reason the elections should happen, rain or shine, as soon as possible.
What could be more fair than an election with an outcome totally up for grabs? The mayor’s race has 23 candidates. That is the most dramatic evidence of a fair election you will ever see in America. The fact that 22 people think they can beat an incumbent mayor tells me that there are a lot of people around who feel that this is the one time they have a fair chance to make their mark in what ordinarily is an insider’s game.
Clearly the evacuees need to be heard from in the election. This is not prohibitively difficult. The first time I ever voted in an election, I voted absentee from my college in Virginia. Absentee voting works in every other election. It works for all the troops in the military stationed throughout the world. It can work for New Orleans.
New Orleans is suffering from a terrible absence of leadership, and the last thing it needs is a lame duck mayor and city council wandering aimlessly, awaiting an election. New Orleans needs an election immediately, if for no other reason than to shake things up and get some people in place with a voter mandate for change. Without change, this city could stumble and fall.
Looked at that way, the NAACP is the worst enemy the African-Americans of New Orleans have.