Redistricting Ruling No Surprise

No one should have been surprised that three Superior Court Judges upheld the congressional and legislative districts drawn in 2011. The unanimous ruling stated that the NAACP, a former legislator and others had not shown “a violation of any cognizable equal protection rights of any North Carolina cities, or groups thereof, will result.”

The US Justice Department had previously given pre-clearance approval to the districts as required by the Voting Rights Act. The state lawsuit was a last-ditch effort to void the districts.

The court  ruling went on to say, “Redistricting in North Carolina is an inherently political and intensely partisan process that results in political winners and, of course, political losers. The political party controlling the General Assembly hopes, through redistricting legislation, to apportion the citizens of North Carolina in a manner that will secure the prevailing party’s political gain for at least another decade. “

Democrats are now learning what Republicans have known for decades: Not only do those who win get to write the history books, they get to choose who is going to make the history they write.

Does the redistricting process need changing? Of course it does. Democrats ran this state since the turn of the twentieth century and turned their backs on those who begged for the process to be changed so as to be more impartial and fairer. Now they are the ones who are doing the begging. Sadly, while the politicians play games of one-upsmanship with one another the voters aren’t given the chance to elect candidates of their choice.

Do we expect this to change? Not any time soon. It will only change when voters begin electing more unaffiliated or third party candidates to the General Assembly. Republicans now rule the roost and likely will for some years to come.