Democrats challenge 'brazen' gerrymandering of North Carolina voting maps

POLITICS SEPTEMBER 27, 2019 / 12:16 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Democrats challenge 'brazen' gerrymandering of North Carolina voting maps

Jonathan Allen
3 MIN READ

(Reuters) - North Carolina Democrats filed a new legal challenge to partisan gerrymandering on Friday, asking a state court to order the redrawing before next year’s elections of congressional districts they say are designed to entrench Republican power.

The lawsuit accuses Republican state lawmakers of drawing unconstitutional voting district maps in the “most extreme and brazen partisan gerrymander in American history.”

In last year’s congressional elections, North Carolina Democrats won almost half of the votes, but netted only three of the state’s 13 seats in the House of Representatives.

“There is no dispute that the 2016 congressional map reflects an extreme and intentional effort to maximize Republican advantage,” the complaint said.

It was filed in court in Raleigh with the help of the National Redistricting Foundation, a non-profit group that fights gerrymandering, the practice of drawing voting maps to entrench one party’s power. The group is led by the prominent Democrat Eric Holder, who served as U.S. attorney general under former president Barack Obama.

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