Let Asheville Vote

Councilmember’s Carl Mumpower, former Mayor Leni Sitnick, and Jan Davis spoke at the event.

“Never, ever, ever, deny people of good heart who want to run for office the opportunity to do so.” – Carl Mumpower, Asheville City Councilman

By Adam Hillberry

Grassroots movement challenges City Council’s decision to move Asheville election system to a partisan system, which would require candidates unaffiliated to a particular political party to gather 2250 signatures to appear on the ballot on Election Day.

“City Council voted on June 12 to move to a partisan elections system. I thought that because they did not allow the people of Asheville to vote on that, which was wrong. So, subsequently a few days later, I filed this petition with the Board of Elections to try and get this move to a referendum so the people can vote on this issue,” said Charlie Hume, who created the Let Asheville Vote Web site.

Vice Mayor Holly Jones and Councilmember’s Brownie Newman, Robin Cape and Bryan Freeborn, all Democrats, cast the four votes to change the election system. Under the new partisan system, an unaffiliated candidate must present a list of signatures from 4 percent of Asheville’s registered voters or around 2250 signatures before their name will appear on the ballot.

532 of 542 municipalities in North Carolina use a nonpartisan election system, according to the Let Asheville Vote Web site.

“We’re eight or nine days into it, and we’ve got people around town
collecting signatures and in several places where people can go to
sign,”

Hume said. “We have a core group of eight people working on this
and really no budget. So it has been difficult to publicize this type
of thing.”

Councilmember’s Carl Mumpower and Jan Davis and former Mayor Leni
Sitnick spoke at the event, Monday, June 26. Hume said the movement was
also supported by Rep. Charles Thomas.

Mumpower said he and Councilman Newman discussed interest in the idea
of partisan elections after noticing the media’s coverage of party
politics in recent elections. After he researched the topic more, he
decided it was a bad idea.

“Never, ever, ever deny people of good heart who want to run for office
the opportunity to do so,” Mumpower said. “If we’re doing anything to
eliminate the opportunity for third party or independent candidates to
run for office, that’s a terrible mistake. In no way should we create
obstacles for people.”

Mumpower also expressed interest in any effort to oust a councilmember to change the decision.

Davis said at the rally he doesn’t normally speak at events like this,
but this issue was one deserving attention as it stretched beyond
regular politics. The decision demonstrated an agenda for the four
council members who voted for the change, according to Davis.

“We’ve had a good system and it wasn’t broken,” Davis said. “To get 30
or 40 names on a piece of paper is a big effort, so to do several
thousand of them are going to make it very hard. It’s going to keep
them out of government. It’s not fair, it’s not inclusive and it’s not
the democratic way in particular.”

Hume said the challenge of the petition shows how difficult it is to
raise awareness and build any campaign as the movement must raise 5,000
signatures by July 16.

“It underscores the point that an unaffiliated candidate is going to
have to go collect 2250 signatures. That’s a lot of signatures and
that’s quite a hurdle to impose on somebody. If anything, even if we
should not succeed, it demonstrates how difficult that may be.”

Hume encourages people to visit the Web site, www.letashevillevote.org,
print out the petition form and mail it to P.O. Box 1705. Petitions are
also located throughout Asheville at Malaprop’s Bookstore, Scandals
Nightclub, Sir Speedy Printing, Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company,
Caffiend Coffee Shop, Chiavaras Hair Design, Enchanted Forest
Consignment Shop, Corner Post, Earth Fare-West Asheville, Haywood Road
Market and Community Food Co-Op, Orbit DVD, Greenberry’s Coffee and Tea
Shop and Perks Coffee Shop.