From Brennan Center for Justice <[email protected]>
Subject December Redistricting Round-Up: Virginia’s Chance to Reform Redistricting
Date December 13, 2019 1:02 PM
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A new majority in Virginia considers redistricting reform, and North Carolina voters have new electoral maps

[REDISTRICTING]

FEATURED STORIES

Virginia Democrats Must Follow Through on Redistricting Reform ([link removed])

In November, Virginia Democrats won control ([link removed]) of the state legislature, giving them unified control of government for the first time in more than 20 years. The political shift was due, at least in part, to Virginia voters casting their ballots under a new state house map that the federal courts put in place after striking down ([link removed]) an earlier racial gerrymander. The Virginia legislature is now poised to pass meaningful redistricting reform to prevent the future manipulation of maps. By passing reform, Virginia would build on the momentum of the five states that reformed redistricting in 2018 ([link removed]) and serve as an example in the South of how states can make their maps and mapping processes more fair.

New Legislative and Congressional Maps in North Carolina for 2020 ([link removed])

North Carolinians will vote in 2020 using new legislative ([link removed]) and congressional ([link removed]) maps after the state courts threw out earlier plans as partisan gerrymanders and approved new district lines drawn by the legislature. In both cases, the newest maps are the third maps this decade. In separate suits, federal courts blocked the original maps, drawn in 2011, for racial gerrymandering, causing both legislative and congressional maps to be redrawn. Those redrawn maps were then challenged as partisan gerrymanders.

The partisan gerrymandering decisions in North Carolina, which relied on the state constitution’s “free elections” provision, come after a January 2018 ([link removed]) decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court striking down that state’s congressional map as a partisan gerrymander relying on a similar provision in the Pennsylvania constitution.

FEATURED MAP

New North Carolina Congressional Map ([link removed])
Photo Credit: NC General Assembly

After North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map was struck down by a state court as a partisan gerrymander, North Carolina lawmakers redrew the map. The new map, which will be used in 2020, is expected to have at least five Democratic districts out of 13, compared with just three under the earlier map. Under the new map, NC-1, NC-2, NC-4, NC-6, and NC-12 all now are strongly Democratic districts

BEST OF THE REST

- A new Brennan Center guide, A Better Way to Draw Districts ([link removed]), explains the nuts and bolts of creating an independent, equitable, and successful redistricting commission. The guide includes a full model bill that can be adapted for advocacy across the country.

- Michael Li and Yurij Rudensky’s article in the Howard Law Journal, “Rethinking the Redistricting Toolbox,” ([link removed]) lays out the legal landscape that communities of color will face in the upcoming redistricting cycle.

- Citizens and lawmakers in North Carolina are readying for their last opportunity to pass reforms before the 2021 redistricting cycle starts. Yurij Rudensky explains ([link removed]) why North Carolina is a prime candidate for redistricting reform.

- Citizen stakeholders in four states have filed ballot initiatives to reform those states’ redistricting processes. Reform proposals in Arkansas ([link removed]), Nevada ([link removed]), Oklahoma ([link removed]), and Oregon ([link removed]) have the potential to bring fair maps to these states ahead of the 2021 redistricting cycle.

- The Intercept’s series “Rigging the Vote” ([link removed]) delves into the files of the late Republican redistricting consultant, Thomas Hofeller. New revelations from Hofeller’s files reveal a decade-long strategy to suppress the political power of people of color across the country.

- Nebraska recently became the first state ([link removed]) to start sharing driver’s license records with the Census Bureau as a part of the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to collect citizenship data. Kelly Percival explains ([link removed]) how confidentiality laws that protect data collected by the Census Bureau will prevent the Bureau from sharing any personally identifiable records.

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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary defend – our country’s systems of democracy and justice.

Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
120 Broadway, Suite 1750
New York, NY 10271
T 646 292 8310
F 212 463 7308

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