District 2 election back in court

Columbia's District 2 City Council election, scheduled for Tuesday, is being challenged in court again - this time by a retired USC law professor and three District 2 residents asking a federal judge to stop the election because they say it violates the Voting Rights Act.

The election survived a challenge in the state courts, which ended last week with a state Supreme Court ruling setting the election for April 6. The court ruled unanimously against Paul Denman, a District 2 resident who had asked the court to halt the election.

This latest court challenge was filed Tuesday by Katharine Butler, a retired USC law school professor who spent 35 years studying the federal Voting Rights Act, which was first passed in 1965.

Former City Councilman E.W. Cromartie resigned March 9 while facing federal tax evasion charges. The next day, City Council members voted to schedule the election to replace him for April 6, the date for the rest of this year's city elections.

Butler is joined in the case by three District 2 residents: Willie King Jr., Josette McDaniel and Marvin Heller, president of the Lyon Street Neighborhood Association.

Butler does not live in the district, but has standing to bring the lawsuit because she lives in Columbia, a city covered by the Voting Rights Act.

"I really am not terribly prone to controversy myself," Butler said. "I don't even like doing this, but I think the alternatives are worse. The next person who comes along who wants to resign at the last minute for whatever reason who would like to leave in place a hand-picked successor, they just have to point to this case.

"I think that's a very bad precedent."

King, McDaniel and Heller met with Butler because they shared "similar concerns," Butler said. They were referred to her "indirectly." Butler would not say how.

Attempts to reach King, McDaniel and Heller were unsuccessful. They are represented by the Sowell Gray Stepp and Laffitte law firm. Butler, who is an attorney but is not licensed to practice in South Carolina, is representing herself "pro se," just as anyone can.

The Voting Rights Act requires local government officials to get permission from the federal government anytime they make a change to their election procedures to ensure the changes do not disenfranchise voters based on race.

Columbia officials have asked the Justice Department for pre-clearance. To date, Justice Department officials have not responded.

Mayor Bob Coble said Tuesday that if the city does not hear from Justice Department officials by election day, the city will cancel the District 2 election.

But in the request for pre-clearance, sent to Washington on March 10, the city did not include all the changes to its election procedures, according to Biff Sowell, an attorney with the Sowell Gray Stepp and Laffitte law firm.

According to the lawsuit, the changes the city left out are:

- Public notice for the election was shortened from 90 days to 22 days.

- The filing period for the council seat was shortened from 30 days to 4 1/2 days.

- The election was added to the ballot while absentee voting for the election had already started.

- The city does not have a process in place to allow voters who cast absentee ballots before a slate of candidates was available in District 2 to come back and vote again in the new election.

- District 2 voters who did vote absentee could have been required to sign a waiver of their right to cast a ballot April 6 - a waiver that did not include the District 2 election because it had not been scheduled.

- The election date was set at a time that made it impossible for new voters to register for the election, as it came less than 30 days before election day.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie. It's possible Currie could schedule a hearing as early as today, Sowell said.

If so, Currie could issue an injunction to halt the election until a three-judge panel could be assembled to hear the case, as is required by the Voting Rights Act, Sowell said.