Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett. Anyone hoping to run for a congressional seat in North Carolina is now left waiting — indefinitely — for candidate filing to open. A Superior Court order Thursday, Nov. 21, officially stalled the filing period, which would’ve opened Dec. 2. The...
UPDATED, 8:00 p.m., to add link to court order. In the middle of North Carolina’s uncertain scuffle over congressional redistricting, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen during the 2020 primaries. But one thing is for sure, say political scientists. Incumbents probably won’t suffer if candidate filing is stalled by the ongoing congressional redistricting case, Harper...
N.C. lawmakers so far have spent two days huddled around computers in a garishly lit legislative committee room, working to fit the puzzle pieces in what will become newly redrawn congressional districts. An 18-member Joint Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting began laying out criteria for maps Tuesday, Nov. 5. Thursday, legislators were still hunched over...
N.C. lawmakers are once again haggling over how to begin drawing new voter maps. This time, North Carolina’s congressional districts are at stake. On Tuesday, Nov. 5, legislators met in a special Joint Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting, the result of an ongoing congressional redistricting lawsuit, Harper v. Lewis. Last month, a panel of three...
A panel of Superior Court judges have approved North Carolina’s newly redrawn legislative district voting maps, but lawmakers are headed back to the drawing board to create different maps for congressional races. Superior Court Judges Paul Ridgeway, Alma Hinton, and Joseph Crosswhite ruled Monday, Oct. 28, in favor of a preliminary injunction in the case...
Redistricting calls for leadership, and now is the time for reform. A three-judge panel is reviewing maps of some of the state’s House and Senate districts, which were drawn by lawmakers to comply with a ruling in Common Cause v Lewis. Plaintiffs in the case claimed “extreme” partisan gerrymandering, the court concurred, and the legislature...
With 2020 primaries quickly approaching, the State Board of Elections says it will need contested election maps by early December. In early September, the three-judge panel in Common Cause v. Lewis ordered the General Assembly to draw new maps for the state’s 2020 elections, after ruling several of the districts unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. The General...
Defendants in Common Cause v. Lewis spurned plaintiffs’ objections to their new 2020 House election maps, claiming the objections “appear to be the product of the partisan goals of the North Carolina Democratic Party.” Plaintiffs last week accused House Republicans of partisan bias in five separate county groupings, arguing for a referee to redraw them....
The redistricting court in Common Cause v. Lewis issued several strict guidelines last month to the General Assembly on how to draft its new 2020 election maps. But will the court’s appointed referee have to follow the same rules? The answer is unclear. The court’s ruling states the referee, Stanford Law Professor Nathaniel Persily, will “assist...
North Carolina’s 2020 election maps created by House members may not stand up to court scrutiny. That’s what plaintiffs in Common Cause v. Lewis argue in a brief they filed Friday, Sept. 27, in Superior Court. Plaintiffs found partisan bias in five of the county groupings redrawn by the House. Specifically, they found four of...
The General Assembly’s new election maps, as they are now, would largely even the playing field for 2020, experts say. Both chambers passed the others’ maps Tuesday, Sept. 17. Redistricting analysts have since evaluated the maps through a relatively new technology, Planscore, which attempts to measure partisan favorability. The metric shows a decrease in the...
