No Time To Redraw NC Voting Maps, Feds Say

Source: Al Drago / Getty

A federal court concluded yesterday that there is not enough time before the November midterm elections to redraw the unconstitutionally gerrymandered electoral map currently used for North Carolina “Having carefully reviewed the parties’ briefing and supporting materials, we conclude that there is insufficient time for this Court to approve a new districting plan and for the State to conduct an election using that plan prior to the seating of the new Congress in January 2019. And we further find that imposing a new schedule for North Carolina’s congressional elections would, at this late juncture, unduly interfere with the State’s electoral machinery and likely confuse voters and depress turnout,” the court ruling read.

The same panel of federal judges ruled in August that North Carolina’s congressional map favors Republicans and presents “an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the First Amendment, and Article I of the Constitution.”

Republicans hold 10 of 13 seats in the House, and a redrawn map could puts control in play.