North Carolina: Lawmakers file appeal of congressional districts ruling | News & Observer

North Carolina leaders filed an emergency appeal Monday to overturn a federal court order that threw out the boundaries of two congressional districts and injected major uncertainty into the state’s March 15 primary. The motion was filed with the same three federal judges who found portions of the state voting map unconstitutional on Friday. State Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Matthews, who helped draw the district lines, said voting is already underway and should not be undermined by the courts. The state called for a response from the court on Monday. “We trust the federal trial court was not aware an election was already underway and surely did not intend to throw our state into chaos by nullifying ballots that have already been sent out and votes that have already been cast,” Rucho said in a statement. Later Monday, the judges gave the plaintiffs in the case, including two from Mecklenburg County, until noon Tuesday to respond.

North Carolina: Questions abound after judges invalidate 2 congressional districts | The Charlotte Observer

The day after a panel of federal judges invalidated two of North Carolina’s 13 congressional districts, state elections officials were working on a Saturday afternoon to encourage voters with absentee ballots to vote the full ballot anyway. Kim Strach, executive director of the N.C. Board of Elections, and Josh Lawson, general counsel for the board, said Saturday that they did not want voters who received the 8,611 absentee ballots sent out for the March 15 primary elections to lose an opportunity to vote. “The number one message we want to get out is we want voters to continue voting,” Strach said Saturday afternoon. Late on Friday, a three-judge panel ruled that North Carolina’s 1st and 12th congressional districts were racial gerrymanders and ordered them redrawn by Feb. 19. Though the ruling halts elections in those districts until new maps are approved, questions remained on Saturday about what that would mean for other congressional races on the primary ballots.

North Carolina: Federal court invalidates maps of two congressional districts | News & Observer

A federal court panel ruled late Friday that two of North Carolina’s 13 congressional districts were racially gerrymandered and must be redrawn within two weeks, sparking uncertainty about whether the March primary elections can proceed as planned. An order from a three-judge panel bars elections in North Carolina’s 1st and 12th congressional districts until new maps are approved. Challengers of North Carolina’s 2011 redistricting plan quickly praised the ruling, while legislators who helped design the maps said they were disappointed and promised a quick appeal. “This ruling by all three judges is a vindication of our challenge to the General Assembly of North Carolina writing racially biased ‘apartheid’ voting districts to disenfranchise the power of the African-vote,” said the Rev. William Barber, president of North Carolina’s NAACP chapter.

Virginia: Supreme Court rejects GOP petition to block new congressional lines | Washington Post

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a request from Republican members of Congress to put on hold an election map that gives Democrats a chance to pick up a seat in this year’s election. The ruling is the latest in a series of decisions triggered last year by a panel of federal judges who said Virginia’s map illegally packed African American voters into one district at the expense of their influence elsewhere. Last month, the judges sought to change that by imposing a map that increases the number of African American voters, who reliably vote for Democrats, in a district that stretches from Richmond to Norfolk. It is represented by Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R).

New Mexico: Proposal to take redistricting out of lawmakers’ hands clears first hurdle | The Santa Fe New Mexican

It’s a long shot to make the ballot, but a proposal to take away the power of state lawmakers and the governor to redraw legislative districts got off to a successful start Wednesday. The proposed constitutional amendment to create a five-member redistricting commission zipped through the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee on a 9-0 vote. Every 10 years, after the U.S. census, state lawmakers redraw boundaries for districts of the New Mexico Legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Public Regulation Commission. Then the governor reviews the maps and can accept or veto them.

Virginia: House panel defeats redistricting bills; Senate panel advances party registration | The Daily Progress

A House of Delegates subcommittee on Tuesday scrapped a series of bills aimed at nonpartisan redistricting. The five measures were defeated 4-3 in a bloc vote in a subcommittee of the House Privileges and Elections panel. Del. Mark J. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, who called for the vote, has said that action on redistricting is premature and that even independent commissions to draw districts require politicians to make appointments. Brian Cannon, executive director of OneVirginia2021, which is pushing for nonpartisan redistricting after the 2020 census, criticized the vote. “This morning was Groundhog Day all over again in the Virginia General Assembly when the members of the House Elections Subcommittee voted to kill five of the most significant redistricting reform bills in recent Virginia history,” he said in a statement.

Australia: South Australia electoral reform a tough task | The Australian

For years, South Australia’s Liberal MPs have complained they would be in government if not for unfair electoral boundaries. But a special panel has been told there’s virtually nothing the state’s electoral commission can do to prevent voters being handed the “wrong” result. The Liberals have languished in opposition since 2002 despite winning a majority of the two-party preferred vote on three occasions. University of Adelaide political scientist Clem Macintyre has pinned the blame on factors beyond the electoral commission’s scope, such as conservative independent MPs siding with Labor.

Arizona: House panel OKs change in redistricting process | Arizona Daily Star

A House panel approved a change in the redistricting process that, if ratified by voters, could have the lines for future legislative and congressional elections drawn only by Republicans. The 4-2 vote by the Elections Committee would keep the Independent Redistricting Commission that voters created in 2000 to wrest control of the process from the Legislature. Proponents say it would help remove the politics from the decennial process. But HCR 2009 takes the chore of appointing its members from legislators from each of the two major parties and instead has commissioners running for office like any other politician. Rep. Ken Clark, D-Phoenix, said that, given the GOP voter registration edge, it is virtually certain to produce a commission of five Republicans.

National: Winning the fight against gerrymandering in the South | Facing South

After the wave of Tea Party victories across the nation turned more state legislatures red in 2010, Republican lawmakers redistricted their states to the party’s benefit. In some cases, Democratic voters — often African-American — were packed into a small number of districts, diluting their political power. Not long ago, Shelby County, Alabama successfully challenged the section of the Voting Rights Act that required certain states and counties with a history of racial voting discrimination to submit any proposed election law changes — including new voting district maps — to the federal government for approval. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder enabled states, most of them in the South, to change voting districts without federal consent.

Nebraska: New redistricting plan relies on citizens commission | Lincoln Journal Star

Sens. John Murante and Heath Mello have reached substantial agreement on a congressional and legislative redistricting proposal designed to distance state senators from the partisanship that tends to shape those decisions. Their proposal, agreed to after almost two years of give-and-take discussions, would create a nine-member citizens commission that would recommend redistricting plans to the nonpartisan Legislature after at least four public hearings throughout the state. The process would begin with base maps submitted to the commission by the legislative research office and end with legislative approval or disapproval of the plans recommended by the commission. However, in separate interviews with the two senators, it appeared that they might not be on the same page yet on one essential ingredient of the plan.

Virginia: U.S. Supreme Court sets March 21 arguments in redistricting case | Richmond Times-Dispatch

The U.S. Supreme Court has set arguments for Monday, March 21, in Virginia’s congressional redistricting case. The high court is taking up an appeal by Republicans in Virginia’s congressional delegation. They are challenging rulings by a three-judge panel that in 2012 state legislators unconstitutionally packed too many additional African-Americans into the majority-minority 3rd District, represented by Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, thereby diluting their influence in adjacent districts.

National: Gerrymandering Is Even More Infuriating When You Can Actually See It | WIRED

President Barack Obama spent the last chunk of his 2016 State of the Union Address talking about how to “fix our politics.” His first solution? Stop gerrymandering, the shaping of congressional districts to guarantee electoral outcomes. “We have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around,” he said. At least one geographer has heeded Obama’s call to action. Using data from the US Census Bureau, Alasdair Rae, a geographer and urban planner at Sheffield University, built maps of every congressional district—all 435 of them—to show just how screwed up they really are. When Rae maps them individually, removed from the context of their surrounding districts, you can really see the extent of the problem. “There are some shapes that are quite egregious,” Rae says.

Maryland: Hogan proposing independent redistricting | The Washington Post

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Tuesday proposed creating a nonpartisan redistricting panel to draw Maryland’s legislative and congressional districts, a change that would strip that power from the legislature and the governor’s office. … The redistricting proposal — which will be formally introduced in the legislature Wednesday — would require an amendment to the state constitution. The change would have to be approved both by the Democratic-majority legislature and by voters. Democratic legislative leaders have vowed to resist such redistricting changes, saying they prefer to wait for national redistricting reform that would also affect states where Republicans control the legislatures.

Editorials: Seeking to End Gerrymandering’s Enduring Legacy | Carl Hulse/The New York Times

Buried less than two miles from the Capitol is the man many blame for the toxic partisanship infecting Congress today even though he died 202 years ago. Elbridge Gerry was a patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence, drafter of the Constitution, House member, governor and vice president under James Madison. Yet he is best known today for the twist on his name that now defines the twisting of legislative boundaries to give one party or candidate an electoral advantage. This “gerrymandering” is seen by many as a root cause of Washington gridlock, a point President Obama underlined anew in his final State of the Union address. Mr. Gerry, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed into law a state legislative map that included an irregularly shaped district obviously drawn to benefit his party. A cartoon in The Boston Gazette archly observed that the map resembled a salamander and added a head, wings and claws to bring it to life. “Better say a gerry-mander,” retorted the waggish opposition newspaper editor Benjamin Russell, who is often credited with coining the exact term. Thus, a lasting element of America’s political lexicon was born. (Mr. Gerry’s name was pronounced with a hard “G” that has been softened in the contemporary use of gerrymander.)

Virginia: Attorney General asks Supreme Court to uphold new congressional districts | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Attorney General Mark R. Herring is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a Republican request for a stay to block implementation of Virginia’s new congressional map. Herring’s office, defending the State Board of Elections, says that the harm to Virginians of restoring the old 3rd District, which a three-judge panel has found unconstitutional, and ordering November elections in Virginia’s old districts outweighs any harm the new map poses to Republicans in Virginia’s congressional delegation. Even if Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, or another Republican in Virginia’s congressional delegation “could show irreparable injury” as a result of the new congressional boundaries, any such injury would be outweighed by the public interest and the injury to the plaintiffs and other Virginia voters, lawyers for the Attorney General’s Office write in response to the GOP motion.

Florida: Legislature won’t appeal redistricting ruling | Miami Herald

The Florida Legislature is giving up the fight and will not contest a court ruling that redraws all of the state’s 40 state senate districts for the 2016 election cycle. Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said he told Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, on Wednesday that the Legislature should let court-ordered maps go into effect, even though he says there were legal issues that were open to appeal. “My recommendation is for us not to appeal, and the Senate president has agreed,” Galvano said. The decision means that the state’s new map will become official on Feb. 8, when the clock runs out on the appeals process. It is the first time lawmakers have refrained from challenging a lower court ruling after four years of legal battles that have cost Florida taxpayers more than $11 million.

Virginia: Election Officials Urge Supreme Court to Let Redistricting Plan Stand | Roll Call

Virginia’s election officials urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to keep in place a new, judge-selected redistricting plan for this year’s congressional elections, putting the officials at odds with 10 current and former members of the state’s Republican delegation in Congress. Halting the plan, put in place Jan. 7, would again allow “racial packing” to taint elections following the redistricting that occurred after the 2010 census, the Virginia State Board of Elections said in a brief. The redistricting plan was put in place by a panel of three federal judges. At issue are the lines drawn for the majority-black district held by Virginia Democrat Rep. Robert C. Scott. A lower court in 2014 found that to be an unconstitutional gerrymander.

Editorials: It’s up to voters to end gerrymandering | The Washington Post

“If we want a better politics, it’s not enough just to change a congressman or change a senator or even change a president,” President Obama said in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Instead of electing a few well-meaning people, the president insisted, “we have to change the system to reflect our better selves,” altering “not just who gets elected, but how they get elected.” Mr. Obama speaks from experience: He promised to be a political change agent in the Oval Office, and, seven years later, the country’s politics are more fractured than when he started. The truth is, as the president also acknowledged Tuesday, “our brand of democracy is hard,” with a certain amount of gridlock built into its system of checks and balances. No magic solution can bridge ideological and cultural rifts. But there are reforms that could help.

Editorials: Can statistics save us from gerrymandering? | Stats.org

The Supreme Court is weighing the question of whether voting districts can be drawn in ways that give an advantage to one party, thereby violating the principle of one person, one vote. In Harris v Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, a group of Republican voters argue that the districting commission redrew the boundaries in 2011 such that, as the Tucson Sentinel put it, “almost all of Arizona’s Republican-leaning districts are overpopulated, and almost all of the state’s Democratic-leaning districts are underpopulated.” The US constitution requires every state to reevaluate the boundaries of voting districts after each national census, taken every ten years, and to redraw those boundaries to take into account changes in population. But did Arizona’s redrawing amount to gerrymandering—the deliberate manipulation of voting district boundaries to give Democrats an advantage? Or was the commission simply trying to comply with the Voting Rights Act amendments requiring that districts should be drawn so as to maximize minority voters?

National: Democrats stand as Obama calls for redistricting reform | The Hill

President Obama called Tuesday for an end to partisan redistricting, creating one of the biggest applause lines from fellow Democrats in his State of the Union address. “We have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around. Let a bipartisan group do it,” Obama said. Democrats in the chamber stood in response, while Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Republicans remained in their seats.
Obama’s party lost control of the House in his first midterm election, and the Democratic Party’s chances of getting it back are dim in large part because of redistricting. More votes were cast for Democratic House candidates in the 2012 election, for example, but it didn’t help put Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) back into the Speakership.

Editorials: This is actually what America would look like without gerrymandering | Christopher Ingraham/The Washington Post

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama called on lawmakers and the public to take a number of steps “to change the system to reflect our better selves” for “a better politics.” The top item on that list was to end partisan gerrymandering: “we have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around,” Obama said. In most states, state legislatures draw the district boundaries that determine how many delegates the state sends to the U.S. Congress, as well as the general partisan make-up of that delegation. State legislatures are partisan beasts, and if one party is in control of the process they can draw boundaries to give themselves a numeric advantage over their opponents in Congress. This process is called gerrymandering.

Virginia: Lawmakers Ask Supreme Court to Stop Virginia Redistricting Plan | Roll Call

Ten current and former Republican members of Congress asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to stop a new, judge-selected redistricting plan in Virginia or risk the state having to postpone congressional elections. A lawyer for Reps. Rob Wittman, Robert W. Goodlatte, J. Randy Forbes, Morgan Griffith, Scott Rigell, Robert Hurt, Dave Brat and Barbara Comstock, as well as former members of Congress Eric Cantor and Frank R. Wolf, filed the petition. The lawmakers’ warned the justices of “electoral chaos,” “mass voter confusion” and “the postponement of congressional general elections until after the nationwide November 8 Election Day in this presidential year” if the Supreme Court doesn’t step in. The petition went to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the justice assigned to handle such requests from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which includes Virginia. He can act on it alone or take it to the full court.

National: Obama’s State of the Union pledge to push for bipartisan redistricting reform was a late add | Los Angeles Times

President Obama used his last State of the Union address to push for national voting reforms and went off script to specifically call for bipartisan groups to draw new congressional districts instead of lawmakers. “I think we’ve got to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters and not the other way around,” he said before veering from his prepared remarks to add: “Let a bipartisan group do it.” In recent days, aides to the president had said he was concerned about gerrymandering, the flood of money in politics and other barriers to voter participation.

New Jersey: Democrats’ controversial redistricting plan ‘dead for today’ | NJ.com

A controversial proposal aiming to change the way New Jersey redraws its legislative districts will not be voted on Monday as state lawmakers gather for the final votes of the two-year legislative session, according to the measure’s top sponsor in the state Senate. Instead, state Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-N.J.) said, Democratic lawmakers pushing the resolution need more time to work on it. “It’s dead for today,” Scutari told NJ Advance Media. The resolution seeks to put a question on November’s ballot asking New Jersey voters to amend the state constitution to make a number of changes to redistricting — including one that would require at least 10 of the state’s 40 districts be deemed “competitive.”

Florida: The next redistricting fight: Who pays the attorneys? | Florida Politics

The Florida Legislature is continuing to oppose an effort by the plaintiffs’ attorneys to get their fees paid by state government now that the congressional redistricting case has been closed. Lawyers for House and Senate filed more legal authority with the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday to support their position that the opposing lawyers are “not entitled to an award of attorney’s fees.” Last month, the court gave its final OK to a redrawn version of the state’s 27 congressional districts, three years after a lawsuit alleged they were unconstitutional. The court eventually agreed and ordered a do-over of the map.

Virginia: Judges impose new congressional map, redrawing 3rd, 4th Districts | Richmond Times-Dispatch

A three-judge panel in Richmond on Thursday imposed a new Virginia congressional map that could give blacks a chance to elect candidates of their choice in two districts, not just one. Unless the U.S. Supreme Court halts implementation, the reconfiguration will lower the black voting age population in the 3rd District, represented by Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, a Democrat, from 56.3 percent to 45.3 percent. It will raise the black voting age population in the 4th District, represented by Rep. J. Randy Forbes, a Republican, from 31.3 percent to 40.9 percent. Scott’s district, which meandered from the Richmond area to Newport News, will now be centered in Hampton Roads.

New Jersey: Democrats’ redistricting plan draws flak | Philadelphia Inquirer

Independent experts and Republicans on Thursday assailed a proposed constitutional amendment that they said would make New Jersey’s legislative elections less competitive and help cement a Democratic majority for years to come. Democrats are fast-tracking the amendment, which would require voter approval, through the Legislature for a likely vote next week, in hope of getting the question on November’s ballot. Democrats control the Senate, 24-16, and, based on November’s elections, will expand their majority next week in the Assembly to 52-28.

Virginia: Judges pick new congressional map for Virginia | Associated Press

A federal court has picked a new congressional map for Virginia that significantly changes the racial makeup of two districts, but could be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. A three-judge panel on Thursday ordered the state to implement a new redistricting map for the 2016 election. The move comes after the panel concluded for a second time last year that legislators in 2012 illegally packed black voters into the 3rd Congressional District, represented by Democrat Bobby Scott. The judges initially ordered the General Assembly to redraw the lines, but when lawmakers balked, the judges hired an expert to help them do it themselves.

Florida: Group challenges inclusion of prisoners in voting districts | Associated Press

A federal judge heard arguments Wednesday in a case that could affect whether prisoners are counted in drawing voting districts in Florida, an issue that affects voting power particularly in rural areas of the state. The American Civil Liberties Union and several Jefferson County residents charge the county used “prison-based gerrymandering” in drawing its five county commission and school board districts, each with about 2,950 residents. The county, with a non-prison population of 13,604 in the 2010 census, counted 1,157 Jefferson Correctional Institute inmates in one district, where they’re more than a third of the population. That gave the eligible voters in the district almost twice the voting power of others in the county, the ACLU says. County residents involved in the lawsuit say it also cut minority voting power.

Georgia: Democrats call for redistricting reform | Atlanta Journal Constitution

Three Democratic lawmakers are pushing to create an independent commission to redraw political lines in the future. Sen. Elena Parent (D – Atlanta), Rep. Pat Gardner (D – Atlanta) and Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D – Decatur) said the legislation would be a fairer way to redraw current legislative and congressional district lines in coming years. “It is time to give the citizens the ability to choose their representatives instead of the representatives choosing their voters,” said Gardner, who is sponsoring both resolutions.