gerrymandering
March 12, 2020 -
Arkansas and Virginia would be the first Southern states to have citizen-led redistricting commissions draw their legislative and congressional districts. Advocates hope it will help put an end to partisan and racial gerrymandering.
November 21, 2019 -
The plaintiffs in a racial gerrymandering lawsuit want a North Carolina court to block judicial elections in districts that were drawn last year by the state legislature. In the racially diverse city of Charlotte, three of the eight districts are more than 70 percent white.
November 20, 2019 -
In the U.S. census count set for next year, many states in the South will continue to count prisoners as residents of the district where the prison is located rather than in their home communities — a practice that distorts representative democracy. But efforts are underway in some states to change how prisoners are counted.
October 10, 2019 -
The same court that recently ordered fair districts for the state's legislative elections will soon hear a lawsuit challenging North Carolina's congressional districts for being too partisan. The plaintiffs want an expedited trial, since a GOP legislator openly stated that the current map was drawn to elect 10 Republicans out of 13 districts in a state that's almost evenly divided along party lines.
September 11, 2019 -
Lawmakers are again redrawing legislative election districts after a court ruled last week that the state constitution prohibits "extreme partisan gerrymandering." Republicans claim they want a fair process, but some are asking whether the first draft map favors the GOP.
August 27, 2019 -
The latest gerrymandering lawsuit in North Carolina claims that when legislators changed judicial elections districts in Charlotte last year, they packed black voters into a few districts and violated a constitutional mandate for a "unified" state court system.
July 18, 2019 -
A judge recently ruled that the North Carolina legislature lost its power to amend the state constitution after federal courts ruled that it was unconstitutionally gerrymandered by race. Now new evidence suggests that lawmakers misled judges to buy time to pass the amendments.