Four Black Fulton County residents challenged Georgia’s statewide, at-large elections for the five Public Service Commission seats under § 2 of the Voting Rights Act, alleging that Black voters could not elect their preferred candidates. Commissioners must live in one of five districts, but voters statewide elect each commissioner to serve the whole state. Plaintiffs proposed replacing the statewide elections with single-member district elections; the district court found a § 2 violation and enjoined statewide elections. The Eleventh Circuit reversed at Gingles’s first precondition. It held that plaintiffs had not proposed a legally available remedy within Georgia’s chosen model for the PSC, a constitutionally created body with statewide authority and responsibilities. The court reasoned that district elections would change the commission from a statewide body to one representing separate districts and conflict with Georgia’s policy choice to regulate utilities for the state as a whole. Because the proposed remedy failed at this threshold, the court did not reach the remaining Gingles preconditions or the totality-of-circumstances inquiry.