HELPFUL LINKS
Here are some helpful links to resources, groups and activities
North Carolina State Board of Elections
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Don't know if you're registered to vote? Public Voter Search
#FairMaps Update
It's....complicated to say the least.
We've had a constant battle against Gerrymandered maps since 2016. Below you'll see some of the history in battling such maps. In the 2020 Census Data, NC gained an additional congressional seat - making the total number of districts 14, so new maps had to be redrawn. Ideally, we wanted to see completely fair maps drawn by unbiased panel, but our NC general assembly is dominated by Republicans currently. So, despite holding town halls across the state where the public spoke out for unbiased authorities drawing fair maps, the GOP presented HEAVILY gerrymandered maps slanted to give them an overwhelming majority of easily won seats that will solidify their strangle-hold on our state for DECADES.
What we DO know for certain is that the NC Republican-majority General Assembly must be broken in future elections in order for the relentless attack on Voter's Rights and Fair Maps to cease, to quit wasting taxpayers money, to allow the legislators to create legislation that actually helps our state, and to ensure that the people of NC have a fair choice in the candidates that are supposed to be representing them in the NC General Assembly. Below is a history of where we are currently with the maps and how we got there.
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2/24/22 North Carolina Supreme Court 3-judge panel Redraws District Map w/ Outside Experts
The judges overseeing the lawsuit ruled that they would accept the newly redrawn versions of maps for the N.C. House and N.C. Senate that lawmakers passed — but not the new congressional map. Instead of taking the legislature’s congressional map, or the proposed maps drawn by the challengers in the case, the judges had a group of outside experts draw a new congressional map for the state. Read more HERE.
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2/18/22 North Carolina Supreme Court 3-judge panel Redraws District Map w/ Outside Experts
The NC GOP-leg general assembly submitted their new congressional map, and the approved plan continues to cause controversy for not only the way it was devised but because of the effects it has on communities. The acceptance and/or approval of this map and those for state House and Senate districts will fall to the courts. They will be submitted today to the 3-judge panel in Wake County Superior Court that first heard the legal challenge from voting rights groups.
That panel has until Feb. 23 to review those maps. Read more HERE.
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2/4/22 North Carolina Supreme Court rejects redistricting map as unconstitutional
The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled Friday that political district maps drawn by Republican lawmakers are unconstitutional and must be redrawn, a significant victory for Democrats in a state almost evenly divided politically. legislature must redraw the map by Feb. 18 and submit it to a panel of three trial judges with an explanation of what data they relied on and methods they used to determine that their districting plan is constitutional. Justices, in a 4-3 vote, sided with the plaintiffs that said the original maps from the General Assembly should be rejected because of the extreme partisan gerrymandering identified by the trial court. Read more HERE.
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1/11/22 Superior Court 3-Judge Panel Approves Congressional Maps
"Despite our disdain for having to deal with issues that potentially lead to results incompatible with democratic principles and subject our State to ridicule, this Court must remind itself that these maps are the result of a democratic process," they wrote. Read more HERE.
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12/3/21 NC Judges Deny Requests to Block Elections Under New Maps
A panel of North Carolina judges has refused to block the latest legislative and congressional maps from being used for the 2022 elections. Read more HERE. But two other cases remain.
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11/4/21 “"North Carolinians made it clear at the start of the redistricting process that they wanted to end partisan gerrymandering. Instead of listening to the people, Republican legislators did the opposite today by passing maps that are heavily manipulated in favor of their party and that will deny real political power to the most populous and diverse areas of the state," said former US attorney general Eric Holder & Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee
North Carolina's GOP-controlled state legislature on Thursday approved the state's new congressional maps, which have boundaries likely to give Republicans an advantage there for the next decade. The state's current congressional delegation has eight Republicans and five Democrats. The state gained an additional seat after the 2020 census for a new total of 14. The new congressional map gives the GOP the clear advantage in nine of the 14 seats. Democrats are heavily favored in three seats and two are toss-ups.
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12/2/19 “There's simply not sufficient time to fully develop the factual record necessary to decide the constitutional challenges to the new congressional districts without significantly delaying the primary elections,” Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway said from the bench. “It is time for the citizens to vote.”
A 3-judge panel decided that the maps Republican Legislators redrew last month would have to stand, with the party primaries for NC now being in March for Super Tuesday. There wasn't time to scrutinize for additional extreme party bias.. However, both congressional and legislative districts will be redrawn in 2021, based on 2020 census figures.. READ MORE HERE
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11/15/19 Republicans Redrew a Gerrymandered Map. Try Again, Say Democrats
North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature, under a court order to throw out its gerrymandered congressional map, on Friday enacted a new one that effectively gives the party eight of the state’s 13 congressional seats instead of the 10 it had before.... READ MORE HERE
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10/28/19 Court Freezes North Carolina's Gerrymandered Map
A three-judge panel in Wake County preparing to hear a case over whether the congressional districts are politically gerrymandered granted a motion Monday to put the map on ice..... READ MORE HERE
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2/7/18 US Supreme Supreme Court says SOME, but not ALL, new legislative districts can be used in 18 elections
The U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday that some of the state legislative districts drawn by Special Master Persily should be used in North Carolina's 2018 elections, but those in Wake and Mecklenburg counties should not, at least for now... READ MORE HERE
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1/20/18 In NC redistricting case, federal judges tell lawmakers to use Stanford professor’s maps
A panel of federal judges has ordered North Carolina lawmakers to use maps created by a Stanford University law professor in the coming elections – in the second ruling this week on a state redistricting case. READ MORE HERE
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12/1/17 'Special master' submits final N.C. redistricting maps
Despite the fact that Persily’s report features extended sections in which he highlights the need to reject the proposed plans of the civil rights advocates who were plaintiffs in the case as producing results that would be impermissibly partisan, the report nonetheless provoked an immediate and scathing assessment from defendant legislative Republicans. READ MORE HERE
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10/26/17 Stanford professor draws maps to correct NC gerrymanders. Now he wants feedback.
A federal court has found it to be likely that lawmakers did not remedy unconstitutional racial gerrymanders in nine state House and Senate districts, and has appointed a special master to help it make a final determination. READ MORE HERE
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8/4/17 The NC General Assembly is Asking for Your Input On Legislative Maps
On August 4, the Joint Redistricting Committee will take public comment on criteria for redrawing legislative maps. While these maps have already been drawn, you will want to make your voice heard to encourage maps drawn without racial or political bias. They've provided an ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM FOR PUBLIC COMMENT.
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7/31/17 No Special NC Elections This Year; Judges Order Quick Drawing of Maps to Correct Unconstitutional Gerrymanders
“We agree with Plaintiffs that the General Assembly already has had ample time to enact a remedial redistricting plan,” the judges said in their unanimous ruling. “We also agree that constitutionally adequate districts should be enacted as quickly as possible to protect the rights of North Carolina citizens and to minimize any chilling effect on political participation attributable to the continued absence of a districting plan in the face of a finding of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.” READ THE FULL NEWS & OBSERVER STORY HERE
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1/10/17 Supreme Court of the United States Puts 2017 NC Legislative Election on Hold
The US Supreme Court ordered a stay pending review on the NC district maps - ruled to be unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered by a lower court - be postponed while it reviews the Republican's appeal. The March 15th deadline is now currently on hold. Elections likely will not be until 2018 due to the SCOTUS stay.
READ THE FULL NEWS & OBSERVER STORY HERE
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12/16/16 North Carolina's 'Legislative Coup' Is Over, and Republicans Won
Legislators passed a slate of bills to sharply reduce the power of the incoming governor, over the heated objections of Democrats and hundreds of protestors. A legislative power grab pure and simple.
READ THE FULL ATLANTIC STORY HERE
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11/29/16 Court Orders Special Legislative Elections for 2017
A federal court on Tuesday ordered North Carolina to hold a special legislative election next year after 28 state House and Senate districts are redrawn to comply with a gerrymandering ruling.
READ THE FULL NEWS & OBSERVER STORY HERE
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08/31/16 Non-Partisan Drawn Maps Raise NC GOP Legislators' Ire
A new unofficial congressional district map released Monday by a bipartisan panel of former state judges was not received warmly by the members of the General Assembly who have the legal authority to set election district lines.
The proposal, a result of a joint project between Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and Common Cause North Carolina, is an attempt to show how a redistricting plan that made no attempt to offer an advantage to either major political party would work. READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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7/29/16 Voter Suppression / Voter ID Laws Overturned!
Sweeping 83-page decision by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upended voting procedures in a battleground state about three months before Election Day. That ruling and a second wide-ranging decision on Friday, in Wisconsin, continued a string of recent court opinions against restrictive voting laws that critics say were created solely to keep minority and other traditionally Democratic voters away from the polls.
