A high-stakes battle over how local leaders are elected in Onslow County heated up in Raleigh today as the North Carolina House Rules Committee reconsidered a controversial piece of state legislation that would restructure the Jacksonville City Council.
The bill—originally filed by local Republican Representatives Wyatt Gable and Phil Shepard—proposes to entirely eliminate Jacksonville’s current geographic ward voting system. It would instead force all six city council positions to run citywide, or "at-large," beginning in December 2027.
Representative Gable told the committee that while the numbers of registered voters in each ward are balanced on paper, actual voter turnout in wards heavy with military families is much lower. He said, “We'll have one ward that might have 1,200 people voted in it, another one that has 200. Two of the wards encompass Camp Lejeune, and the people on Camp Lejeune do not vote in the municipal elections, or if they do, it's at a very, very low rate.”
Gable and Shepard argue an at-large overhaul creates citywide accountability.
But back home at Jacksonville City Hall, the proposal has faced intense community backlash and multi-hour council debates. Opponents, including multiple sitting council members and local civil rights groups, argue the shift will dilute minority voting power and block lower-income neighborhoods from having a distinct voice at the table.
Members of the House Rules Committee appeared to agree. Representative Amos L. Quick III said voter turnout cannot be legislated. “Most municipal elections in North Carolina have between 14 to 17% voter turnout,” he said, “And so, low voter turnout takes place all over the state and all over the country.”
Jacksonville once used an at-large system, until a 1989 federal class-action voting rights lawsuit forced the city to create geographic wards. Plaintiffs said the system intentionally and systematically diluted the voting power of Black residents and suppressed minority voter registration. A subsequent challenge in 2022 was dismissed by a federal judge the following year.
Quick added, “The historical reasoning for going to district systems because of the disproportionate negative impact on African-American and minority voters in at-large voting is the reason that Jacksonville first went to district systems. And I don't know that we've gotten to the place now where we can say that outcome would not still be the same.”
Representative Shelly Willingham agreed that the issue of voter turnout is not one for lawmakers to solve with legislation. He said, “It's not our job to go out and try to increase the voting numbers. That's not our job. So, it appears here, this is what we're trying to do here. And we're using the method that you are proposing. And that method seems to be one that's not really acceptable to the people in the area.”
Representative Allison Dahle pointed out that prisons are included in the voter count under state redistricting laws, just as Camp Lejeune is counted in Jacksonville, and making a change at the state level may have a snowball effect.
“I'm wondering about whether this is going to set a precedent that will change all of the rules around redistricting,” she said, “Now, I personally don't like counting prisons in that population for redistricting, but they are counted and none of those people are allowed to vote. So, I feel like your argument is moot.”
After a brief recess, Gable announced that upon learning new information, they would rework the proposal and come back at a later date.
