The GOP’s Gerrymandering Lies
New court filings by Common Cause of North Carolina accuse Republican state lawmakers of lying in federal court about the existence of updated redistricting maps so the GOP could avoid a special election in 2017 after their districts were ruled as racially gerrymandered.
- Even a conservative U.S. Supreme Court with Trump appointees had ruled that North Carolina Republicans had once again drawn unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered districts for the state legislature.
- When the SCOTUS told a lower court to rule on a remedy in 2017, GOP lawmakers claimed they could not draw new maps in time for a special election in 2017.
- But Common Cause has obtained files from the GOP’s now deceased gerrymander guru, and Common Cause says new maps were more than 90% complete when GOP lawmakers claimed they had not started remaking legislative maps.
- The GOP’s response thus far is really weak. Those new legislative maps that were 90% done when the GOP said nothing had been done? Oh, those were “play maps.”
It’s one more proof-point in the NC-GOP’s ongoing attack on our democracy. First, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Republicans racially gerrymandered legislative districts to dilute the voice of black voters. Now there’s evidence that key Republicans lied in federal court to avoid facing voters in a special election in 2017 that never happened but could have and should have happened. A 2017 special election would have threatened the GOP’s super-majorities. Instead, voters had to wait until 2018 to finally reject the GOP’s super-majorities which were built on unconstitutional racially gerrymandered maps that discriminated against people of color.
