The Fight for Fair Maps
By Miles Kirkpatrick, Carolina Forward,
North Carolina is a firmly purple state, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from our congressional delegation. Despite regularly electing Democrats to statewide offices, Republicans dominate our House congressional races, with Cook predicting they will safely win 10 of our 14 House seats again in 2026.
Republicans’ electoral success isn’t because North Carolina voters strongly prefer Republican representatives, but because the Republican Party has drawn our House districts to ensure they win most of them through a process known as gerrymandering. Currently, aggrieved individuals, the NAACP, and Common Cause are suing over these maps; however, current precedents make it nearly impossible to get the maps discarded.
Both Speaker Destin Hall and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger were named in suits (that eventually consolidated into Williams v. Hall) alleging the 2023 congressional, State House, and State Senate maps had illegally gerrymandered districts. The trial concluded on July 9th, featuring testimony from black community leaders about how the maps divided black communities across the state. The challenged maps will be used in the 2024 election regardless of the decision.
Gerrymandering is the intentional drawing of legislative district maps to influence the results of an election. In North Carolina, where the state legislature draws both its own districts and congressional districts, Republican legislators can (and do) draw districts that favor themselves and their party. North Carolina Republicans have a storied history of gerrymandering that we have discussed previously, including how it drives extremism and how Republicans gerrymandered the 2024 State House and Senate maps.
Gerrymandering contradicts the principles of a fair and democratic system. While there is no such thing as a perfectly fair map – every map will be biased towards the map drawer’s goals of keeping together municipalities, respecting cultural borders, conforming to natural geography, or political fairness – drawing palpably unfair maps is functionally a way to rig an election. However, due to recent court decisions from both SCOTUS and the North Carolina Supreme Court, it has become very challenging to get an unfair map overturned.
Our elections should represent the will of the people, not partisan interests. We need to reform the rules to END gerrymandering – so that our government is truly of, by, and for the people. Please sign the Petition for fair, independent redistricting.
People Powered Fair Maps
People Powered Fair Maps™ is a national redistricting program of the League of Women Voters focused on creating fair political maps nationwide in all 50 states + D.C. In June of 2019, the US Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. League of Women Voters of North Carolina that no fair test exists for courts to determine when partisan gerrymandering has gone too far. As a result, federal courts will be hands-off in the redistricting process even when new district lines are drawn to intentionally decrease the voting power of voters based solely on their political party.
People Powered Fair Maps™ was launched in September 2019 to create fair and transparent, people-powered redistricting processes that eliminate partisan and racial gerrymandering nationwide. Join our newsletter to stay up to date with the movement.
Once drawn, our maps determine how we’re represented in the government for the next ten years. This means all state and local decisions on health care, jobs, the environment, education, and more rely on fair maps.
Through People Powered Fair Maps™, the League is committed to ensuring that maps are drawn fairly and accurately, with all voices considered and equitably represented. This can only be achieved, with voices from all communities. Connect with your state or local League for opportunities to have a voice in how maps are drawn in your community.
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