The process by which legislatures surgically draw voting districts in order to preordain partisan victory is finally getting the coverage it deserves. Indeed, courts have recently ordered amended lines for North Carolina's Congressional districts, while the future of the entire General Assembly, whose lines were deemed “race-based,” lies in the hands of John Roberts and SCOTUS. Will we have a special election in 2017? Will we have radically new lines? If so, in which districts? Thanks to the wide screening of films such as “Democracy for Sale” as well as influential writing by authors such as Ari Berman and David Daley, we now are gaining a clear picture of how deep the problem runs. SInce both parties have historically engaged in the process of gerrymandering, a powerful bipartisan movement is afoot to remove districting power from the state legislature and put it in the hands of an independent commission to ensure that every North Carolinian’s vote counts the same. One p...
North Carolina and National Politics