ATLANTA — The Georgia and Fayette County chapters of the NAACP have joined 11 Fayette County voters in a lawsuit against the county's board of commissioners and board of education, alleging that its practice of at-large elections is disenfranchising black voters.

The federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday also lists as defendants the Fayette County Board of Elections. According to the 2010 Census, Fayette County is nearly 73 percent white and 21 percent black. The lawsuit says that because of the practice, no black candidate has ever been elected to the county's board of commissioners or board of education.

"Plaintiffs assert that Fayette County's at-large method of electing members to these boards, given the levels of racially polarized voting, guarantees precisely this result," the lawsuit reads. "Elections in Fayette County show a clear pattern of racially polarized voting. Although black voters are politically cohesive, bloc voting by other members of the electorate consistently defeats black-preferred candidates."

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"If African-Americans were a minority within the larger unit, but of sufficient number in some areas of that unit ... then the county would adopt an at-large system which would have the effect of giving whites control over who gets elected in the county," Bositis said. "The Voting Rights Act is about systems that keep African-Americans from electing the candidates of their choice."

Read more at ajc.com and The Final Call.