NC Policy Watch: “Maps for new congressional and legislative districts do not violate the state constitution and can be used in the next election, a three-judge panel said in a decision Tuesday that will be appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The NC League of Conservation Voters, Common Cause, the state NAACP, and voters backed by the National Redistricting Foundation challenged the maps, saying they are extreme partisan gerrymanders that dilute Black voters’ power. The three cases have been consolidated.
The same three-judge panel last year dismissed or ruled against these lawsuits.
The state Supreme Court granted the challengers’ requests for expediated appeals. The Supreme Court halted candidate filing for the 2022 primaries, and moved the primaries from March 8 to May 17.
A lawyer representing Common Cause called Tuesday’s ruling disappointing but indicated that an appeal is coming.
“While this ruling is disappointing, all signs ultimately point to the N.C. Supreme Court resolving the case,” Hilary Harris Klein, senior counsel for voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said in a statement.
“We remain confident that our conclusive evidence of partisan bias, obfuscation, and attacks on Black representation, from expert testimony to mapmakers’ own admissions, will convince the state’s highest court to protect voters from nefarious efforts to entrench partisan power at the expense of free elections and fair representation.”
In last week’s trial, a parade of mathematicians and political scientists said the districts legislative Republicans approved were outliers skewed to Republican advantage and rarely, if ever, could be reproduced using computer algorithms, NC Policy Watch reported. One redistricting expert, Moon Duchin of Tufts University, said the gerrymandered districts resisted changes in voter preferences. Even in good election years for Democrats, the state would elect 10 Republicans and four Democrats to the US House, she found.”