Another look at Hickory Municipal Elections - Wards and Precincts - Silence DoGood

Silence DoGood wrote this piece right after the last election and I didn't want to keep harping on that sad state of affairs when it comes to Hickory municipal elections, but now when we look at the issue of non-participation and couple it with the issue of representation, then this article brings the issue full circle. Harry says that people need to get out and vote. I wonder if that would be enough, when we look to see how the rules are constantly manipulated to maintain a status quo that only benefits a small minority of the community. I agree that people must participate in order to change circumstances, but I also understand the frustration. No matter what we do those in power are going to throw up roadblocks. What you have to do is maintain your cool and keep moving forward. You have to believe that eventually we will get there. Don't give up and don't give in.

Another opportunity has come and gone. I’m speaking here of election day and the choices we make in deciding who will make decisions on our behalf. Some will waffle about how there were not any choices other than the same folks already running things. Whose fault is that, per chance? Why is the political process so covered in dirt and lambasted in mud slinging that no one wants to put themselves or their families under the microscope of scrutiny. I mean after all, most of what is debated it seems has little to do with qualifications to hold office. It has more to do with social mores and ecumenical piety than the ability to make rational decisions and work as a team to make things happen. Erstwhile leaving your own personal motives out of the equation, along with personal and familial monetary gain, and not doing anything illegal in the process. Anyway, that’s my general statement about the electoral process in Hickory and the nation as a whole.

I’ve been crunching numbers again. I’ve written, as has Thom and others, about the insanely disparaging pitfall of the way council members are elected in Hickory. Well, I’ve taken the process a few more steps into graphic detail and this document serves as testimony to that. Even though as a general overview and consensus, quite a few citizens think the manner in which representatives are elected is skewed, since you only have to live in the ward you want to represent, you’re elected by Citywide popular vote.

Recently, the city re-drew their ward maps in order to comply with federal laws that require such things. A balance was sought, according to the official City of Hickory website between the 6 wards of 6,668 people each. An admirable task, if it really counted for anything. The reason it doesn’t is you’re electing representatives citywide to serve in the respective wards. If it were not a federal law to re-draw the districts after each census, why would you even bother? Balancing the wards by population serves no purpose other than to comply with the Federal statute. Electing those ward representatives citywide allows for block voting from the other wards and a skewed representation on City Council. Like I said, I’ve been crunching numbers again. I started by identifying each of the 23 precincts from which Hickory draws their votes from, n=23. Those precincts are as follows:

PCT#    PRECINCT                          POLLING PLACE   -  POLL ADDRESS
04         BROOKFORD                    BROOKFORD TOWN HALL  - 1700 S CENTER ST HICKORY, NC
07         CONOVER WEST              FIRST METHODIST CHURCH  -  410 NORTH 1ST AVE CONOVER
11         COLLEGE PARK                ST ANDREW'S LUTHERAN CHURCH   -  629 8TH ST NE HICKORY
12         KENWORTH                     CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH  -  324 2ND AVE SE HICKORY
13         GREENMONT                   WESTMONT SR. CITIZENS CENTER  - 1316 MAIN AVE DR NW
14         OAKWOOD                      HOLY TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH  - 547 6TH ST NW
15         RIDGEVIEW                     BROWN-PENN CENTER  - 735 3RD ST SW
16         HIGHLAND                       HIGHLAND RECREATION CENTER  -  451 8TH ST DR NE
17         LONGVIEW NORTH            BETHEL METHODIST CHURCH  - 80 28TH ST NW
19         LONGVIEW SOUTH            CHRIST UNITED BAPTIST CHURCH - 1131 33RD ST SW
23        MOUNTAIN VIEW #1           BETHEL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST -  4547 BETHEL CHURCH RD
24         MOUNTAIN VIEW #2          MTN. GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH  -  6156 MTN GROVE CHURCH RD
26         OAKLAND HEIGHTS            FIRST ASSEMBLY OF GOD CHURCH  - 1301 12TH ST DR NW
28         ST STEPHENS #1              ST. STEPHENS LUTHERAN CHURCH  - 2304 SPRINGS RD
29         ST STEPHENS #2              ST. LUKE'S LUTHERAN CHURCH  -  3916 SPRINGS RD
30         SANDY RIDGE                   ST. STEPHENS LUTHERAN CHURCH ELCA  -  2259 12TH AVE NE
33        SPRINGS                           MT. ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH  - 4420 COUNTY HOME RD CONOVER
34        STARTOWN                       ST. PAULS REFORM CHURCH   - 3562 STARTOWN RD NEWTON
35        SWEETWATER                    NEW JERUSALEM LUTHERN CH  -  2120 STARTOWN RD
36        VIEWMONT #1                   ST. LUKES UNITED METHODIST CHURCH  - 52 16TH AVE NW
37        VIEWMONT #2                   MT. OLIVE LUTHERAN CHURCH  -  2780 N CENTER ST
38        FALLING CREEK                   LAKEVIEW BAPTIST CHURCH  - 4080 N CENTER ST
39        NORTHWEST                      NEILL CLARK REC. CENTER  - 3404 6TH ST DR NW

Now, since the City of Hickory is broken into a quadrant, with each quarter so designated northwest (NW), northeast (NE), southeast (SE), and southwest (SW), I checked the address of each precinct polling place and grouped them according to the map quadrant system.  The result of that is the following table:

NW   
13    GREENMONT                 WESTMONT SR. CITIZENS CENTER - 1316 MAIN AVE DR NW
14    OAKWOOD                    HOLY TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH - 547 6TH ST NW
26    OAKLAND HEIGHTS         FIRST ASSEMBLY OF GOD CHURCH  - 1301 12TH ST DR NW
36    VIEWMONT #1              ST. LUKES UNITED METHODIST CHURCH  - 52 16TH AVE NW
37    VIEWMONT #2              MT. OLIVE LUTHERAN CHURCH - 2780 N CENTER ST
39    NORTHWEST                 NEILL CLARK REC. CENTER  - 3404 6TH ST DR NW

NE   
11    COLLEGE PARK              ST ANDREW'S LUTHERAN CHURCH - 629 8TH ST NE HICKORY
16    HIGHLAND                    HIGHLAND RECREATION CENTER - 1451 8TH ST DR NE
28    ST STEPHENS #1          ST. STEPHENS LUTHERAN CHURCH  - 2304 SPRINGS RD
29    ST STEPHENS #2          ST. LUKE'S LUTHERAN CHURCH - 3916 SPRINGS RD
30    SANDY RIDGE               ST. STEPHENS LUTHERAN CHURCH ELCA - 2259 12TH AVE NE
38    FALLING CREEK             LAKEVIEW BAPTIST CHURCH - 4080 N CENTER ST


SE   
12    KENWORTH               CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH  - 324 2ND AVE SE HICKORY

SW   
15    RIDGEVIEW               BROWN-PENN CENTER  - 735 3RD ST SW04 BROOKFORD


The other nine (9) precinct polling places that collect votes in the Hickory municipal elections are located outside the corporate city limits of Hickory, and have been designated as ‘outside’ (OS) for the purposes of this data set.

OS  
4       BROOKFORD           BROOKFORD TOWN HALL  -  1700 S CENTER ST HICKORY, NC
7       CONOVER W.          FIRST METHODIST CHURCH - 410 NORTH 1ST AVE CONOVER
17     LONGVIEW N.          BETHEL METHODIST CHURCH - 80 28TH ST NW
19     LONGVIEW S.          CHRIST UNITED BAPTIST CHURCH  - 1131 33RD ST SW
23     MTN VIEW #1         BETHEL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST - 4547 BETHEL CHURCH RD
24     MTN VIEW #2         MTN. GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH - 6156 MTN GROVE CHURCH RD
33     SPRINGS                MT. ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH - 4420 COUNTY HOME RD CONOVER
34     STARTOWN            ST. PAULS REFORM CHURCH  - 3562 STARTOWN RD NEWTON
35     SWEETWATER        NEW JERUSALEM LUTHERN CH -  2120 STARTOWN RD


I’ve shown the precinct number, the precinct label or name, where the polling place is and the physical address, according to Catawba Board of Elections. This is how they cluster by group:

To state the obvious shown in the above chart, the NE and NW accounts for 52% of the polling places for the City of Hickory. The SE and SW account for 8% of the polling places and the remaining 40% are located outside corporate municipal limits.

However, you are probably thinking that doesn’t mean votes or even elections, since they are merely places to go vote and you’d be correct in that assumption. What I’m thinking though is, why are there so many polling places strategically located on the north side of the tracks and there are so few for the south side inside City limits? Particularly when Council went to so much trouble with committees to ensure 6,668 people per ward. Why is that? However, I will direct your attention to the following graphs and charts as illustrative of the overall point of this exercise, allowing ward representatives to be chosen at large in the City is wrong. Here’s why.


 


 


 



 Those same votes, as shown in the charts above are now presented to you by precinct polling place and quadrant.


 



 









Let me explain a couple things here about what you’re looking at. The vote numbers are excluding curbside, absentee, and provisional votes. The reason I didn’t include them is that there is no means of tracking location for one and there were only 12-16 of those votes cast voting for each of the 3 incumbents for another. There was zero votes for a challenger from any of those three sources. Also, my use of the words “incumbent” and “challenger” here are neutral references since it is not my purpose nor intent to engage in or deal with personalities.

Now, when 52% of the available polling places are located in areas that are favorable to you and your campaign and the votes coming out of those polls account for 89%, 88%, and 87% of the total votes cast in an election, you are in absolute control.

Is it plain and relatively simple now to see how it doesn’t matter how many people are in the respective wards? Isn’t it really easy to gauge how control is being leveraged using the system of at large ward voting currently being utilized? Can you see how apathy and disgust build among people to know, time and again, why should they bother to vote, when the game is rigged so why not just hand it to them by not running challengers or even participating in the process.

All the people are asking for is that they be allowed to choose the person that represents them, in their ward, where they live. Not choose the person that represents you, in your ward, where you live. But that is the system that is now in place. It has a very feudalistic quality to it. Sure, your allowed to vote but not that it matters with the way things are to make sure that any vote you cast that is counter to the status quo is null when it drops in the box or goes through the counter.

This is not an academic piece nor is it science, per se. The data hasn’t been controlled for variables such as voter turnout or number of challengers, nor is it a longitudinal examination across time, yet. I intend, in the ensuing weeks, to take the data from a previous submission to see how they stack up over the last 10 years and if that data supports the conclusions drawn.

As I’ve indicated in the past, I pose and ask lots of questions. I don’t just try to force feed you lop-sided information and insist you take it for the gospel. I encourage you to think critically, seek the answers to these questions and more on your own, and if arrive at a different conclusion, that’s great too, I’m not claiming to have the only answer. But with the way things are at present, it’s hard to ignore what’s staring at you.