A federal lawsuit that seeks to have a Mississippi Senate district’s boundaries changed before the 2019 elections probably deserves to be rejected. But the case brings up a question about voting that has vexed the country for more than 50 years.
The lawsuit claims Senate District 22 is illegally gerrymandered to make it difficult, if not impossible, for a black candidate to get elected. The gerrymandering allegation has some merit. The district runs from the Delta city of Cleveland all the way down to the Ross Barnett Reservoir in suburban Jackson. By any measure, it is an oddly shaped district, taking in parts of six counties and lumping together very different parts of the state’s population.
The case’s three black plaintiffs, including one who lost a campaign for the Senate seat in 2015, contend that the district’s 51 percent black majority “lacks real electoral opportunity” for black candidates. And that is the vexing question: Half a century after gaining the right to vote, why is it still so unlikely that a black candidate can get elected in a 50-50 district?
The answer to that question is deceptively simple — because a smaller percentage of black residents vote. Again, the question is why?
There’s no denying that when it comes to black participation, those prominent elections are the exception instead of the rule. It’s also sad that the same level of apathy about voting is becoming apparent among whites as well.
As for the lawsuit, why did the plaintiffs wait years to complain about the district? Presumably the lines will be redrawn shortly after the 2020 census. Admittedly, this is an odd district. But the bigger problem has nothing to do with gerrymandering. It’s the voters who are uninterested.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
