Redistricting

In 1964, the Supreme Court held that the voting power of each individual should be equal. But do current voting districts reflect the principle of “one person, one vote”?

Two former North Carolina mayors have joined a coalition seeking to put the power to draw voting districts in the hands of a non partisan commission.

Opponents of the legislative and congressional districts drawn in 2011 by the General Assembly argued in court today that those boundaries should be thrown out.

The effort to scrap the new legislative and congressional boundaries landed in the state Supreme Court today. Attorneys for groups from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice to the state NAACP told justices the boundaries for the newly drawn maps are unconstitutional. They want the court to postpone the candidate filing period for this year's elections as well as the May sixth primary date.

RALEIGH, N.C. - A three-judge panel on Monday upheld the boundaries for North Carolina's legislative and congressional seats drawn by Republicans, saying the lines don't damage constitutional rights of citizens.

The Superior Court judges, in a unanimous 171-page decision, rejected the arguments of Democratic voters, civil rights groups and election advocates who sued over the lines and argued they were racial gerrymanders.

In 2010, when Republicans won control of the state House and Senate, they radically redrew voting districts in favor of their own party.  In previous elections, Democrats have done the same.  Now, there's a bipartisan effort in the state House of Representatives to reform the redistricting process.

A panel of judges is set to hear arguments Monday about whether to uphold or reject North Carolina's newest legislative and congressional districts.

A three-judge panel is allowing two lawsuits against the Republican-drawn redistricting maps to go forward.

Judges heard more than three hours' worth of arguments yesterday over litigation challenging newly drawn congressional and legislative maps.

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit over newly drawn maps for legislative and congressional districts want to delay the state's May primary until July.

State lawmakers have voted to restore omissions in redistricting maps that left out about half a million voters.

Lawmakers voted mostly along party lines yesterday to pass bills that restored the missing census blocks. A software problem in the program used to draw the maps caused the issues. Republican representative David Lewis said debating these bills is completely unlike the heated discussions over drawing the maps earlier this year.

In Raleigh today, a group of civil rights and election watchdog organizations filed a legal challenge to newly drawn maps for North Carolina’s legislative and congressional seats. The suit is the second filed this week in Wake County Superior Court alleging the Republican-drawn maps segregate minority voters in order to dilute their statewide influence.