Written by: Stella Anderson and Pam Williamson on behalf of the Watauga Voting Rights Task Force
Mr. Davenport has ignored key FACTS that served as the basis of the lawsuit he claims was partisan. He ignores the fact that 71% of Watauga voters (with a majority of voters in all 20 County precincts, in November 2024) cast votes supporting the Referendum calling for a new structure for our County Commission in support of 3 District and 2 At-large seats.
It was not the Commissioners at the time that approved this structure. Rather, the matter was put to the voters to decide. And voters across this county supported the adoption of that new structure starting with the 2026 election.
They voted to adopt this structure; however, due to Senator Ralph Hise’s subsequent Senate Bill 912, those votes would be cast to no effect.
We, individually and on behalf of the Watauga Voting Rights Task Force, will always stand against any legislative action that calls for utter disregard of the will of voters in this county. Thus, this lawsuit.
Mr. Davenport also ignores the current commissioners’ decision to hire outside legal counsel to try to defend, in essence, what is indefensible. They made that choice, meaning they could have made a different choice – leave it to the legal counsel of the legislative intervenors, Senator Berger and Representative Hall to try to defend the indefensible.
The individualvoters and thesevoting rights organizations raised the money to filethis action to hold the county and Raleigh accountable to the will and votes of all the people of Watauga. Thecosts incurred by the current commissioners using taxpayer money to defend the indefensible is on them.
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