Court says gerrymandered NC districts must change, immediately
A ruling handed down by a North Carolina court last week declared N.C.’s legislative districts to be illegal partisan gerrymanders and ordered the immediate redrawing of maps, which should have a substantial effect on Democratic representation in the General Assembly in 2021.
“It instructed the legislature to have the redrawn districts in question to be done Sept. 18,” said Aubrey Woodard, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party’s 11th congressional district.
Back in June, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the Court had no authority to meddle in states’ congressional districts, which are drawn by state legislators every 10 years, after the decennial census.
While that ruling was disappointing to Democrats, it left open the possibility of action being taken on state legislative districts. States draw their own House and Senate districts.
On Sept. 3, a three-person panel of Wake County justices unanimously ruled in the case of Common Cause v. Rep. David R. Lewis, senior chair of the House select committee on redistricting.
“… the Court finds that in many election environments, it is the carefully crafted maps, and not the will of the voters, that dictate the election outcomes in a significant number of legislative districts and, ultimately, the majority control of the General Assembly,” reads the ruling.
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Woodard said that the ruling would indeed affect some of his jurisdiction, which runs all the way from the western tip of N.C. through Caldwell County in the east.
“The 11th district is affected only in two areas — actually one area in Buncombe,” said Woodard. “Three districts in the House and one district in the Senate.”
That, according to Woodard, means that most Western North Carolina voters shouldn’t expect any changes to come to their House districts – currently represented by Kevin Corbin, R-Franklin, Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville and Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville — or their Senate district, currently served by the retiring Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin.
— Cory Vaillancourt, Staff Writer
