OUR VIEW - March 26

March 28, 2008 05:24 pm

— You don't always get what you want in America just by voting for it, even if your side wins. That's not cynical - it's a statement of fact. Some things we vote on, some things we don't. That's how our system works. We elect legislators, but (with the occasional exception) they make the laws, not us. We elect most state and local judges, but not federal judges. And in all cases, they interpret and apply the law - not us.
That's why the county commission was right to overturn the results of a 2006 referendum mandating countywide voting for commissioners. In 1985, a federal court determined that countywide voting in Suwannee County violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting minority participation in local politics. And federal law, whether in the form of a statute or a court order, always takes precedence over local or state law. That's a bedrock principle of American law. So any talk of the erosion of our rights is misinformed. The system worked the way it was supposed to - the way it was designed to.
Except for one thing. According to Michael Grogan, the constitutional expert hired by the county to size up the situation, the 2006 referendum never should have been held in the first place. State law compelled commissioners to place the issue on the ballot, but federal law - the 1985 court order - prohibited them from doing so, Grogan told the board at last week's meeting. And as we've seen, federal law always wins. Too bad we went to all that trouble for nothing.