INSTITUTE INDEX: North Carolina's racially-charged redistricting plans come under fire

Date on which plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging legislative and congressional redistricting in North Carolina filed a motion asking the court to rule that district maps created by the Republican-controlled legislature are racially discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional: 10/5/2012

In a study of six North Carolina counties with high concentrations of black residents conducted following the May 2012 primary election, number of voters who had been assigned to the wrong districts by local election boards: 2,056

Percentage of those wrongly-assigned voters who live in a voting precinct split by the GOP redistricting plan, in some cases street by street and in others house by house, making it difficult for local election boards to determine a voter's correct district: 97

Of those 2,056 wrongly-assigned voters, number who cast ballots in the 2012 primary: 715

Number of those voters who received the wrong ballot: 222

Portion of North Carolina registered voters who live in a precinct that the GOP plan split between one or more state House and Senate districts: almost 1/3

Under the GOP plan for congressional districts, percentage of the white population placed in split precincts: 2.6

Percentage of the black population placed in split precincts: 3.9

Under the GOP plan for state Senate districts, percentage of the white population placed in split precincts: 11.8

Percentage of the black population placed in split precincts: 19.4

Under the GOP plan for state House districts, percentage of the white population placed in split precincts: 16.6

Percentage of the black population placed in split precincts: 26.8

According to the lawsuit, number of congressional districts in North Carolina that are racial gerrymanders segregating African-American voters and thus violating the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: 3

According to the lawsuit, number of state House and Senate districts that are racial gerrymanders segregating white voters: 19

According to the lawsuit, number of state House and Senate districts that are racial gerrymanders segregating African-American voters: 27

Number of public hearings on the new district plans attended by Thomas Hofeller, the former redistricting chair for the Republican National Committee who was hired by the North Carolina legislative leadership to draw the new district maps: 0

Number of the state's 13 congressional districts that leaned Republican under the old maps: 6

Number of the state's 13 congressional districts that lean Republican under the new maps: 10

(Click on figure to go to source. The maps above, from a summary of the redistricting complaint filed by the N.C. NAACP, League of Women Voters of North Carolina, Democracy NC and the A. Philip Randolph Institute, compare the outline of select state Senate districts under the new map, at top, and the old map, at bottom.)