Unaffiliated and unacknowledged — Michael Crowell fights for the growing number of voters who decline party labels
By Eric Johnson '08
May/June 2019 | The Carolina Alumni Review
In February, when the North Carolina State Board of Elections ordered a new congressional race in the 9th district, the board’s vote was unanimous. It was likely the first time in American history that a federal election was invalidated for fraud — tampering with absentee ballots, in this case — and the board’s two Democrats and three Republicans presented a united front in demanding a new contest.
The Washington Post called the move a rare instance of bipartisanship in a divided age. “Republicans and Democrats agreed that something went right [with the Board’s vote] compared with how partisan conflict often plays out in the country’s hyper-polarized political environment,” the paper reported.
But Michael Crowell, a longtime election law expert and former professor at the UNC School of Government, wants to know why only Democrats and Republicans are at the table for decisions like these. In a state where nearly a third of all registered voters choose not to associate with either main party, Crowell thinks it’s time to revamp our election machinery for a new and more complicated era.
“Twenty-five years ago, more than ninety percent of voters were either registered Democrats or registered Republicans, so this system made sense,” he said. “That’s not the case anymore, and we need to figure out how to deal with that.”
Election law is the underground infrastructure of democracy — largely out of sight until something goes wrong, as in the 9th-district fraud case. Crowell is among the small community of North Carolina lawyers who keep that infrastructure working smoothly. He built a distinguished career both at the School of Government and in private practice by untangling questions about district lines, ballot counting, candidate eligibility, and all the other issues that crop up when you’re trying to run free and fair elections.
Now largely retired, Crowell has taken up the cause of unaffiliated voters — the fast-growing population of citizens who don’t register with a major political party. He has a lawsuit pending in federal court in Greensboro, challenging state laws that mandate the appointment of registered Republicans and Democrats to boards of elections at both the county and state level. He has standing to bring the case because he is, himself, an unaffiliated voter.
“There are more unaffiliated voters in this state than there are Republicans,” Crowell pointed out. “We have ten counties where there are more unaffiliated voters than either Democrats or Republicans. It’s a sign that people simply don’t identify with the parties the way they used to.”
The North Carolina Voter Registration Application provides seven different options for party affiliation. You can tick the box for the Democratic Party, Republican Party, Constitution Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party, Unaffiliated (helpfully clarified as “no affiliation”), or you can fill in the blank next to “Other.” If you decide to write in The Eric Johnson Party or throw your weight behind the The United States Pirate Party, you get counted unaffiliated.
You can still vote for whoever you want on Election Day. But only people who check the first two boxes — registering as a Democrat or a Republican — are allowed to serve on boards of elections in North Carolina. That not only leaves a wide swath of citizens ineligible, but means that the pool of registered D’s and R’s becomes more polarized as independent-minded voters opt out.
“Because the parties are shrinking, the folks who get chosen to represent those parties are going to be more partisan than they used to be,” Crowell explain. “The people who are left in the two political parties are going to have a narrower view than used to be the case when the parties were bigger tents.”
Tom Ross, the former UNC System President and head of the State Court System, has known Crowell and worked with him for decades. He agrees that the shift away from party affiliation needs to be better reflected across state government, in everything from election boards to the drawing of legislative districts.
“I think people are tired of the generalization in politics, the idea that every Republican thinks this way or every Democrat thinks that way,” Ross said. “A lot of people see themselves as Americans first, and don’t necessarily identify with one tribe or the other.”
It makes sense that Crowell would emerge as a crusader for the state’s unaffiliated voters. His long career led to decades of relationships across party lines, advising county officials and school boards in every part of the state and working with fellow attorneys to maintain confidence in elections.
“Give the best advice, find the right answer, without being distracted by political or other factors — that’s the School of Government ethos,” Crowell said. “And in private practice, I had the opportunity to represent everybody on the political spectrum. I liked that. I took a lot of satisfaction in that approach.”
He was known for hosting regular social gatherings of election law experts across the state — staff from the Attorney General’s office, lawyers from both state political parties, legislative officials. “About twice a year, we’d get together and talk about cases we were working on, issues we thought were important, things that were happening in other jurisdictions,” Crowell recalled. “We just got to know each other, and it became a very collegial group of people.”
Crowell hopes that elevating the role of unaffiliated voters in the political system might help bring a little more collegiality to public life. An end to the two-party monopoly, at least in state statutes, might help politicians recognize that most voters aren’t hard-core partisans.
“Most unaffiliated voters have a clear preference and end up voting pretty consistently for one party,” Crowell explained. “But by registering independent, you’re saying to the world, ‘I’m open to other candidates. I’m not tied to one party, and I want to hear from other folks. I want to make up my mind based on something other than party labels.’”
It’s an optimistic vision of a state less divided than it appears, and of a public more interested in compromise than partisan combat. “Michael is a person with a mind to public service,” said Robert Joyce, who worked closely with Crowell at the School of Government. “Doing what he sees as serving the public good is clearly a lot of fun for him.” ◆
Originally published in The Carolina Alumni Review, the alumni magazine of UNC Chapel Hill.