Judges: No special elections for redrawn NC districts

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Judges: No special elections for redrawn NC districts

By GARY D. ROBERTSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH, N.C. — Jul 31, 2017, 8:37 PM ET

Federal judges on Monday rejected a request by North Carolina voters who sued over General Assembly district boundaries to hold special elections next March in new districts once lines are redrawn to eliminate illegal racial gerrymandering.

The unanimous order by the three-judge panel means the next legislative elections won't occur until November 2018, as regularly scheduled. But the judges did tell Republican lawmakers who control the legislature that they'll have to approve new House and Senate boundaries by this September — at least two months earlier than GOP leaders sought.

The three judges ordered lawmakers to draw the new maps by Sept. 1 but wrote that they would extend the deadline to Sept. 15 if lawmakers make enough progress on new boundaries in the next few weeks. Such movement would include disclosing remedial plans and creating a method by which the public and other legislators can make comments and present evidence.

The panel ruled in August 2016 that 28 state House and Senate districts were illegally drawn based on racial considerations. After Republicans took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices upheld the lower court decision to throw out those boundaries. Democrats hope the new boundaries could help them erode the GOP's veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers.

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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/judges-special-elections-redrawn-nc-districts-48957775

[pierre_pondrom]

1. My solution is to take redistricting away from politicians and to the U.S. Census Bureau

I have a method that would make each congressional and state legislative district more equal than the current method and more importantly, as compact as possible. We should put it in the hands of US Census Bureau (CB) every four years.

In 2004, the Supreme Court came within a single vote of ruling against Gerrymandered districts, thus allowing political influence to draw the redistricting lines and the unconstitutional rigging of the citizens vote.

Gerrymandered districts are in violation of the constitutional compactness of district’s line. Our politicians forget about compactness and choose our community’s district lines with their re-election interests in mind. In order to get re-elected, they use the voters current address to define the border lines based on a voters leaning towards one political party or another. Sometimes, they also used a common ethnic or religious background.

My solution is a method that would make each congressional and state legislative district more equal than the current method and more importantly, as compact as possible.

The Gerrymandering solution requires a test to see how much more compact a district line may be defined using citizens current Global Positioning System (GPS) location instead of their street addresses. The GPS points are a precise ruler system using addresses with a number for Latitude (vertical) and Longitude (horizontal) locations.

Note changing to GPS points may not change your state Senators/Representatives, but it will bring your neighbors interest closer together when the CB provides the GPS district lines. This change will also save the current tax payer cost of the work of numerous committees all over the county. Eliminating the Electoral college would also permit local communities to decide who they want to represent them as president.

This solution would require the CB to see how much more compact a district may be defined using the GPS points instead of street addresses. I have made examples of the Redistricting Game (RG). These two maps show how the US Census Bureau could replace a 4 district community with the required new 5th district with a nearly equal populations of about 6,450.

My 4 districts Redistricting Game picture on the RG website[link:http://www.redistrictinggame.org/| shows an uneven population and the district lines have been Gerrymandered.

My 5 district map can be made with nearly even population and the district lines are more strait. However it shows the more identical 645,000 population. And, if the Redistricting Game used a GPS increment smaller than 3% for district lines, the populations would be more exact.

So changing to GPS points may not change your state Representatives, but it will bring your neighbors interest closer when the US Census Bureau provides the GPS district lines. This change will also save the current cost of the work of numerous committees all over the county.

[Brother Buzz]

2. Have you studied California's solution to Gerrymandering?

It still uses the ten year Census, but the lines are drawn by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (five Democrats, five Republicans, four independents), NOT legislators. It was initially met wet scorn from all corners, but it appears to be working, and by most measures it was Schwarzenegger's crowning achievement.

https://ballotpedia.org/California_Citizens_Redistricting_Commission


Schwarzenegger has a message for the rest of the nation: