Livable Raleigh, candidates want to put city election changes on the ballot
A local civic group and several announced candidates for Raleigh City Council want voters, not the council, to decide whether to change local elections.
The City Council voted last week to move from two-year terms to four-year, staggered terms beginning in 2026 and to change its election method to a nonpartisan primary, in which the top vote getters for each seat square off in the general election.
City leaders also tabled expanding the board from its current eight members to 11 by adding three district seats.
Council members had the choice to make the decisions or put the issues before voters during this fall’s election. Several expressed support for letting voters decide but ultimately voted not to. Council members Mary Black and Megan Patton voted against that decisions, and Council member Christina Jones was not present for the vote..
Now, Livable Raleigh, a local advocacy group, and several candidates are organizing petitions to put the two issues before voters this fall.
“Six councilors made public statements in support of using a referendum for the voters to make the decision on election reform for more than a year, [m]ost voicing that support as recently as one month before they suddenly changed course and turned their backs on the promise they made to the voters,” according to Livable Raleigh. “And, they did so without any explanation for what caused them to abandon their firmly stated positions.”
Each petition — one on staggered terms and a nonpartisan primary, and the other on adding council seats — needs at least 5,000 signatures from city voters within 30 days. Livable Raleigh is asking for the petitions to be completed and returned to the group by June 1 to have enough time to get the petitions to the Wake County Board of Elections to verify the signatures.
Those rallying around the petition are mayoral candidates Paul Fitts and James Shaughnessy; at-large candidates James Bledsoe, Joshua Bradley and Rob Steele; District A incumbent Mary Black and candidate Whitney Hill; and District E incumbent Christina Jones and candidate John Cerqueira.
Steele had submitted his own petition request to the Wake County Board of Elections office but agreed to work with Livable Raleigh instead.
“While I personally disapprove of four-year terms this is about getting this on the ballot like the City Council indicated they were going to do,” he said. “So it’s not about the terms. It’s about getting on the ballot and letting voters make the decisions.”
Filing for the 2024 elections begin on July 5.
In a news release Monday, Livable Raleigh said it is not taking a stand on two- or four-year staggered terms, but wants to put the issue before voters since two city surveys found people did not want four-year terms.
In 2021, the group expressed support for keeping two-year terms and said any election changes should be put to voters.
This is the second time Livable Raleigh has sought voter signatures related to city politics. In 2021, the group led a failed effort for a recall election of Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. That petition needed at least 14,000 signatures.
This story was originally published May 13, 2024 at 4:11 PM.
