UPDATE: NCGOP passes extreme partisan gerrymander state, congressional voting maps into law

North Carolina Republicans this week passed their gerrymandered, likely illegal voting maps through both chambers of the legislature and into state law. 

These new maps may violate laws like the Voting Rights Act (VRA), which protects the rights of voters of color, as Republicans did not consider racial data in the drawing of the new maps. The new districts will give Republicans at least 10 of the state’s 14 seats in Congress (they currently have seven) and keep their majorities in the state legislature for years.

North Carolina Republicans, famous for their illegal “almost surgical precision” in targeting Black voters with their voting maps, have once again taken a scalpel to the state’s voting maps and ever so delicately sliced up the state into wildly unfair state and congressional districts.

These maps split communities down to the city and town level for no reason other than it’s politically expedient to the GOP. By splitting towns into separate districts, Republicans are trying – once again – to dilute the power of Black communities and voters.

Our democracy is built on the idea that voters choose their representatives, not the other way around. This is not the first time Republicans have brazenly gerrymandered political districts in an attempt to stay in power and it certainly won’t be the last. At the same time, North Carolinians will not give up the fight for fair maps and fair representation.