Court Rules 28 of 170 N.C. Legislative Districts are Racial Gerrymanders

Court Rules 28 of 170 N.C. Legislative Districts are Racial Gerrymanders

By EditorAug 16, 2016
North Carolina - Last Thursday, a three-judge U.S. District Court panel ruled that 28 of the Republican-drawn districts for the N.C. legislature were indeed unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The Republican practice of making "safe" minority districts even "safer" to comply with the Voting Rights Act was completely disavowed by the court.  In short, the Voting Rights Act does not mandate districts in which minorities are already successful at electing their preferred candidates, to be packed with even more minority voters - something that North Carolina insisted was the case. The districts will stand for the 2016 election however.  The court has ordered a…
Race in Redistricting, Racial Gerrymandering, Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, Redistricting Litigation, Redistricting Race Rules, , , ,
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Gerrymandering Explained by MTV

Gerrymandering Explained by MTV

By EditorMay 12, 2016
How does MTV explain gerrymandering to its core audience? With Oreo cookies of course.  Other snacks are used to portray how students in a class my divided based on their common snack interests.  The analogy leaves out crucial one-person one-vote issues, but provides a quick visual into the electoral map-drawing process.  Despite the shaky electoral analogies, the article discusses fairness issues in map-drawing and the role of commissions and ballot initiatives. Interestingly, the article reports on an initiative in North Carolina to demonstrate "good-government" redistricting via a panel of retired judges who will redraw the states' electoral map. This mock commission is…
Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, , , ,
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