Anthony Sacco, former ‘Northampton County Democratic Chairperson’

In addition, the state law establishing the seven member elected school board for Northampton County will have to be approved at the Federal level by the Justice Department, as it is a voting rights/civil rights issue. We shall see what they say.

It is possible that the Justice Department will decide that at- large candidates might in fact dilute the diversity of the school board by compromising the minority majority proportions built into our districting plan. They might conclude that since about 60% of the population of the county is white, the at-large candidates elected would be more likely to represent the white majority than the 40% minority of non-white African Americans and Hispanics? They may decide we’re much safer going with 5 school board members, each representing a district. Then, it would be more likely that at least two of the districts would elect board members that would represent the interests of the minority. In simple terms, more does not necessarily equal diversity, it may result in the opposite.