Fayetteville resident Fred Cutter knows his representative in the state House for years has been Marvin Lucas. This year? He’s not so sure. Not that Cutter would vote for the Spring Lake Democrat — “I’m about as blood-red Republican as you can get,” Cutter said. But confusion over North Carolina’s scrambling of district boundaries since 2016 could be a major theme of this year’s crucial midterm elections. Even as candidates began filing to run last week, neither congressional nor state legislative districts are certain, due to unsettled court battles over the role of race and politics in district boundaries. The courts may order more changes to districts, which could throw campaigns into chaos ahead of the May primaries or November election.
The consequences of the chaos could be significant in North Carolina, a state considered in play among some observers. How well candidates are able to slice through the confusion and connect with voters in their new districts could factor into whether Democrats gain seats in Congress, or Republicans retain their veto-proof majority in Raleigh.
The boundaries for the state House and Senate districts were significantly revised in 2017 and early this year, putting thousands of voters in Cumberland County into new districts for the first time since the 2012 election. Congressional districts remain the same as 2016, for now, but a key ruling by the nation’s highest court could change that.
Full Article: Confusion over election districts could have consequences.