The presidential race at the top of the general election ballot will get the most attention between now and Nov. 5, but the item at the bottom of the ballot for city voters could have the biggest impact on Knoxville’s government.

Council members are taking the lead on public engagement about the referendum question.

Referendum No. 2 asks city voters if they want to amend the Charter to provide for electing six regional at-large City Council members, with regional residency requirements for candidates, and three citywide at-large members. No other information will be provided on the ballot.

Voters who don’t educate themselves on the issue beforehand will have no indication of why the question is on the ballot or what happens if it fails or the details of what happens if it passes.

In short, the outcome of the referendum vote will determine the city’s election system moving forward. But the issue can seem as complex as the question itself is simple.

If a majority votes “yes,” the city will move to an exclusively at-large system of electing all Council members; if a majority votes “no,” the city will move to a district-only model for six of the nine Council seats.

Council members are taking the lead on educating the public on the choices.

“I’m committed to doing a lot of outreach and education,” said Councilwoman Amelia Parker, who is against the proposal.

Councilman Andrew Roberto, who supports the amendment and has formed a committee to push for its passage, said voters are becoming more informed but more work needs to be done.

“I’ve been having a lot of discussions about this since the state law was passed in 2023,” he said. “At first, neighbors were not aware of the impact of the new state law, but now most voters I speak with have some knowledge of the Charter amendments and what they do.”

How the Question Got on the Ballot

For the past 55 years, following changes to comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, City Council has consisted of six district representatives and three at-large members. 

The city’s process, however, followed an unusual hybrid model for district representation. Voters in each district would vote in the primary, with the top two finishers moving on to the general election. In the general election, all city voters cast votes in every district race. 

The arrangement meant that voters living outside a district could — and occasionally did — veto a district’s top choice in the general election by electing the second-place primary finisher.

Last year, the Legislature removed an exemption to state law that permitted Knoxville’s system. Without the exemption, only district voters can select district representatives in local elections. 

After meeting with constituents who live in the 3rd Council district, which has seen its top choice lose in the general election, Knoxville Republican Rep. Elaine Davis introduced the legislation in the House. The bill attracted bipartisan support from Democrats concerned about at-large voting possibly reducing Black representation and Republicans who emphasized district self-determination.

A majority of City Council members reacted with fury at what they deemed to be the Legislature’s interference with a home-rule city’s local affairs. They discussed filing a lawsuit challenging the law or possibly pushing for a legislative effort to restore the exemption, but ultimately settled on a Charter amendment to wrest control over the process back from the Legislature.

Davis, who lives outside the city limits and cannot vote on the referendum, said the decision is up to the voters, but she raised concerns about the regional residency requirement. “All you’re doing is having the same system in place,” she said. “You’re just changing the word ‘district’ with ‘region.’”

Voters will now have the final say. No matter how the vote turns out, City Council will continue to have nine members, with three of them elected by all voters citywide. The outcome will determine how voters elect the six other members.

The Meaning of ‘Yes’

Roberto, with an assist from City Council Attorney Rob Frost, drafted the ordinance outlining the proposal that was ultimately adopted for the referendum.

The proposal would do away with numbered districts, replacing them with regions denoted by geography. The boundaries would remain the same; only the names would change.

The regions would be:

• South Region (currently District 1)
• West Region (District 2)
• Northwest Region (District 3)
• North Region (District 5)
• Northeast Region (District 4)
• East Region (District 6)

The key difference between the proposal and elections past is how the primaries would be conducted. 

Candidates would have to live within the region as they have under the district method, but voters citywide would select the two candidates who would move on to the general election. As in the past, the general election contests would also be decided on a citywide vote.

Advocates for the proposal have noted that the regional residency requirement for candidates ensures that a regional resident represents the region, though the region’s preference might not win the citywide vote.

Roberto and other supporters — including a majority of Council members — have said the citywide vote would make every Council member accountable to every city resident because every voter would have a hand in electing all nine Council members.

Term limits would still apply to sitting Council members — none of the six current district representatives would be able to run in 2025.

One risk of an exclusively at-large system is a politically homogeneous Council because all members would be elected by the same pool of voters. That’s been the case in Knoxville for at least the past 35 years — in the 1990s, Council leaned right of center, but now is overwhelmingly left of center.

According to the University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service, there are 16 Tennessee cities that use a system similar to the one that would be created if the referendum passes. They are all much smaller than Knoxville, however, and all of the state’s larger cities have district representation. 

The Meaning of ‘No’

A “no” vote wouldn’t turn back the clock to allow the previously used system. Instead, the city would automatically switch to district-only voting in the general election to comply with state law.

District-only voting is the rule, not the exception, in most jurisdictions. County commission, state House, state Senate and congressional seats are all selected on a district-only basis.

Parker had proposed placing a district-only option on the ballot, but conflicting referendum questions can’t be placed before the voters in the same election. Referendum questions have to be crafted to elicit yes-or-no answers and cannot be either-or propositions.

Opponents of the referendum question argue that district-only voting better represents neighborhood interests because it ensures that the district’s choice would serve on City Council. It also would encourage people who have strong connections within a district but aren’t well-known citywide to run. And it’s much less expensive to run a district-only campaign than it is to run citywide.

Parker, who is Black and an at-large Council member, and others are also concerned about keeping African-American representation on Council. A pure at-large system would risk losing the 6th District seat on Council because the city’s white majority would dominate voting in both the primary and general election. 

But the 6th District, the city’s only majority-minority district, has been represented by a Black candidate who has won citywide in every election since 1969.

The 6th District’s second choice won in three consecutive elections during the 1990s, but since then the citywide electorate has followed the district voters’ lead. Current 6th District Councilwoman Gwen McKenzie defeated white candidates in both her runs for the seat.

Citywide voting in the general election in the past has led to a district’s second choice winning election in other districts three times since the turn of the century. Most recently, Councilwoman Seema Singh finished a distant second in a four-way primary for the 3rd District seat in 2017, but handily won in the citywide general election. 

Engaging the Electorate

With the presidential race attracting so much attention and city voters who don’t often vote in municipal elections likely to go to the polls in high numbers, educating the electorate about Referendum No. 2 has become a priority for both sides.

Parker has mobilized the progressive City Council Movement to help spread the word and advocate rejecting the amendment. City Council Movement has been holding informational events during the past few weeks, and members are going door-to-door every Saturday, Parker said.

“I initially heard a lot of confusion,” she said about voter attitudes. “After discussing it with people, I’m finding a lot of support for maintaining district representation.”

Republicans, who want to see district-only voting to increase the chances of electing more conservative representatives, are making their voices heard, too. In the 3rd District in Northwest Knoxville, the city’s reddest district, Singh said she has attended neighborhood meetings where the majority of residents are against passage of the amendment. 

“They know it’s about the 3rd District,’ she said. “They want representation that reflects them. I hear their concerns.”

However, Singh added, a majority of people she has encountered support the amendment, as she does herself.

On the other side, Roberto and Rev. Harold Middlebrook, the civil rights icon and influential leader in the Black community, have formed Knox Voters Alliance to educate voters and advocate for passage. Knox Voters Alliance is made up of 18 members from across the city.

“Let the people speak through their vote,” Middlebrook said in a statement. “The people of Knoxville don’t want to surrender their vote; every voter wants to keep their voice on what happens in Knoxville and on who represents our entire city.”

Roberto and other Council members, as well as the Knoxville Chapter of the NAACP, have been holding town hall meetings on the proposal.

Advocates on both sides have little time to reach city voters. Early voting for the Nov. 5 general election begins Oct. 16.