Affidavit of William Kenneth Hale
Public Court Documents
January 12, 1983

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Case Files, Thornburg v. Gingles Working Files - Guinier. Affidavit of William Kenneth Hale, 1983. 25671c40-e292-ee11-be37-6045bdeb8873. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/39508cea-86ee-447c-ac93-1bc6fcd26d40/affidavit-of-william-kenneth-hale. Accessed April 27, 2025.
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!.; , &/tr; AFFIDAVI t{illiam Kenneth Hale, being duly sworn, deposes and says: 1. I am an attorney licensed in the State of ltlorth Carolina and an employed by the North Carolina General Assemb'ly. I served as chief counsel to the House Legislative Redistricting Conmittee (hereinafter, the Committee) for the 1981 General Assembly. 2. I was furnished by the North Carolina Department of Justice with a computer printout of the North Carolina House Plan that was formulated by lth'Michael S. ltlicha'lec for the plaintiffs in Cavanagh v. Brock (82-545-CIV-5). I had our computer operators place the data from the M'ichalec House Plan into our computer for verification and analysis, t.Ie used the same computer program that was employed by the 1981 General Assembly in developing the North Carolina House Legislative Redistricting Plan' 3, I then drew a map to graphically depict the Michalec House Plan. I inmediately noticed that the 26th House Djstrict consisted of two noncontiguous areas in viola- tion of Article II, Section 5(2) of the Constitution of North Carolina: To wit' Robeson County on the one hand, and Anson, Montgomery, and Richmond Counties and Laure'l Hill Township of Scot'land County on the other hand, are separated by the remainder of Scotland CountY, t{hich is in the 25th District' 4. The Michalec House Plan does not adequately recogn'ize the concentrations of black populat'ion in the fol'lowing counties that are covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and that were specifically addressed by the United States Attorney General in his letters of objection: Cumberland, Guilford, Halifax, Caswell' Northampton, Hertford, Martin, and Gates, Specifically the M'ichalec House Plan does not subdivide Guilford or Cumberland Counties to recognize the voting strength of black citizens as does the North Carolina House Plan' Yt.; 5. To illustrate mY Point that I cited in Paragraph 4 of comparison chart: about the counties this affidavit, I other than Guilford and Cumberland have compi I ed the fo'l lowi ng COUNTY Caswe'll Northampton Gates Hal ifax Mart i n Hertford REPS, 3 1 1 1 1 1 N. C. HOUSE PLAN DISTRICT'S BLACK POP. X 39.4% 60.9% 60,9I 62,0% / 39.4%* 46.4% / 62,0%* 60.9% I,IICHALEC HOUSE PLAN REPS. DISTRICT'S BLACK POP. T ? 1 1 2 I 1 22.91 43,4% 49,0r 42.3* l 43,4%* 51 .0* 49.0x The astericks indicate where count'ies have been divided and the composite townships have been placed in two djstricts, The first figure indicates the district,s b'lack population percentage for the greater number of county residents. 6. Section 5 of the voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits any change in election practice or procedure having either the effect or purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color. In its enforcement of the Act' the United States Department of Justice has used two population thresholds in determin- ing whether a rac.ial minority has a mqiority of voters in any particular district. Because of a high percentage of nonvoting age persons and the presence of low voter registration and turnout anong racial minorities, the Department considers a racial ,,minority,, population percentage of at least 65% of a district's tota'l population and 60% of a district's voting age population necessary for members of a racial minority to have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. United States v' Mississippi, l00 s.ct,994,997 (1980), These figures are based on an assumption of polarized or bloc voting. 7. In his letter of Januarl 20,1982, to Mr. Alex K' Brock, Assistant U.S' Attorney General yil:liam Bradford Reynolds stated that North Carolina's "use of large multi-member d.istricts effectively submerges sizeable concentrations of black population into a majority wtrite electorate." Based on Section 5 standards, Mr. Reynolds further stated: -2- e Our analysis also shows that the pl.an has other dilutive effects on blacr'ioiing:iti.ngth-i; coverld areas of the state. For instance' in the d..ii.,"gates,-Halifax, Hertford, Martin and l{orthanpton counti.i-a.ei'(Oisirict it,-!n. Stl!9 pioposes to..reduce the black percentage from 57.5* to-6i .iX- in tf,is'3-inember district' Black voters in ilre current rrrii*.rber district have been able to elect a candidate in District S. -ffrui, ttre proposed reduction in black popula- tion percentage in that'Oii[riit-tnouiA appear to.be.a retrogression in the posili;-6i raci al ,inoiiti.s tt ictt ibspect to their effective use of the electorat franchise. eee. ,, untiEd'ititii, qis u.s. 130, 141 (1976)' Mr' Reynolds then concluded,..In vjew of these proscribed effects, however, I am unable to conclude, as I must under the voting Rights Act, that the proposed House reapportionment pran is free of a raciaily discriminatory purpose and effect' Accordingly, on behalf of the Attorney General, I must interpose an obiection to theHouseplanasitrelatestothecoveredcounties'.. g.InordertomeettherequirementsoftheVotingRightsAct,andunderthe advice and supervision of ltr. Jerris Leonard, an attorney in btashington' D'C" with extensive experience in voting Rights Act administration and litigation, the legis- rative staff and House Legisrative Redistricting committee then proceed to create singre-member House districts in the Northeast, The brack population percentage of each township was indicated on a large map, and townships were grouped into single- member districts in accordance with the population percentage standards mentioned in ParagraPhs 6 districts, "one and 7 of this affidavit. At the same time, in drawing these person' one vote" requirements were recognized and followed bY the staff and conmittee to the end that au district rerative deviations did not exceed p'lus or m'inus f ive percent (1SX1' 9. The resultS of this effort were the northeast district configurations enacted by the General Assembly in the First Extra Session 1982 (Session Law chapter 4 - House Bill 1). The 5th and 7th Districts, with black population percentages of 60.9xand62'0xrespectively,containthehighestpercentagesofb.lacksattainable under the 1gg0 census data. In order to create these districts in accordance with the U.S. Justice Department,s popu'ration threshords mentioned in Paragraph 6 of this affidavit, there had to be wtrolesale disregard for the county lines in this area, Attention had to be directed at those townships with high concentrations of blacks that cou'td be grouped into single-member districts. There are, of course' *- other configurations that yield three sing'le-member districts in this geographical area, but to date no other such plan has been drawn that provides for two districts with black populations of 62.0* and 60.9X. 10, The entire northeast area of the Michalec House P'lan would have to be redrawn in order to meet the objections interposed by the U.S. Attorney General. Redrawing this area would in turn require redrawing almost every other district line in the piedmont and eastern sections of the State, Redistricting experience has shown that the resu'lting transfers of townships between districts in the east will naturally have a "ripple" or "domino" effect that would extend to Guilford County and its adjacent counties, 11. My calculations indicate to me that it is not possible in drawing North Carolina House districts to comply with federal statutory and constitutional redistricting requirements and the objections of the U,S, Attorney General without dividing counties that are not covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. this 1 993, My Comrnission Expires 9- arl- 8l subscribed before me -4-