District change proposal is just a bad idea
To the Editor:
You ever watch something happen in local government and think, “There’s no way they expect us to buy this?” That’s exactly how the push to change Macon County’s voting districts feels. Commissioner John Shearl is trying to sell this as some kind of fairness reform, but once you look at the details, it’s obvious what’s going on. And it’s not fairness.
Let’s start with the basics: no other county in North Carolina uses the system Shearl is pushing. Not one. Out of 100 counties, Macon would be the only one with three single-member districts and two at-large seats stacked on top. When you’re the only one doing something, it’s usually because everyone else figured out it’s a bad idea.
And this one is a really bad idea.
The biggest district — District 2 — has almost twice the population of all the others. Under the current system, that population gets the representation it deserves. Under Shearl’s plan, they’d lose two of their three seats, and the smaller districts would suddenly have a path to controlling the at-large seats too. That’s not reform. That’s rigging the board.
And here’s the part that really blows my mind: according to public reporting, Shearl has been telling people he wants this change so a friend of his from District 1 can run in 2028. That’s not democracy. That’s not representation. That’s the kind of thing people complain about when they say politics is broken — because it is.
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Then came the Feb. 10 commission meeting. Shearl stood there and claimed this whole thing was about “fairness” because some commissioners serve two-year terms and others serve four. That was simply not true. Every commissioner serves four years. Term lengths have nothing to do with district boundaries. Changing the districts doesn’t fix that. It doesn’t even touch it. It was a talking point — and a false one.
If you’re going to rewrite the entire structure of county representation, the least you owe people is honesty. Instead, we got a story that fell apart the second anyone looked at it.
This proposal isn’t about fairness. It’s about power. It’s about tilting the playing field so a smaller group of voters can outweigh a larger one. It’s about helping a buddy get a seat. And it’s about hoping the public won’t notice what’s happening right in front of them.
Macon County deserves better than becoming the only county in North Carolina with a voting system designed to weaken the majority of its residents. We deserve transparency, honesty and a system that reflects the people who actually live here — not the political ambitions of a select few good old boys up in Highlands.
This proposal should be rejected — loudly, along with his re-election bid.
Walter Cook
Franklin
