North Carolina’s new state election maps are being watched closely – after courts twice rejected the state legislature congressional maps, saying they were unfairly drawn to give political advantage to one party.
The courts ruled the districts had been drawn to give political advantage to Republican voters. The court ruled political voter data could not be used in drawing new maps.
The state’s maps used in 2011 and 2017 were both ruled unconstitutional. Now, state district maps must be approved by the courts before they are enacted.
The state legislature is under orders to create new maps that will more fairly represent voters in the state. Currently, the maps give Republicans a strong majority in both houses of the state legislature: The party holds 29 of the 50 seats in the Senate and 65 of the 120 seats in the House.
The new maps will be used in the 2020 election. Both parties expect areas that had been Republican seats to lean Democrat in the coming years
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