It’s been a long few weeks for members of the General Assembly and Board of Election Employees in North Carolina.
Chris Thomas explores new changes may affect Eastern North Carolina and the game of musical chairs representatives face.
So, first thing’s first – this is not the end of the state’s congressional district squabble. More legal wrangling over this issue is virtually inevitable.
But, last Friday, the General Assembly drew new state congressional maps, making significant changes to it and the primary voting schedule.
This came after a panel of federal judges determined state legislators broke the law in 2011 when they created the former 1st and 12th districts, relying too heavily on race.
“And that resulted in a redrawing of all of the congressional districts.”
Josh Lawson is a spokesperson for the North Carolina Board of Elections.
With a new map comes major changes, especially in eastern North Carolina – including Craven, Greene, and Lenoir Counties.
While the state has 13 brand new congressional districts, the 1st, 3rd, and 7th still fall, primarily, in eastern North Carolina. But, those counties I just mentioned – Craven, Greene and Lenoir? They’re all in the 3rd District now and they’re represented by Republican Walter B. Jones.
But, just a week ago, parts of those counties were in the 1st District represented by Democrat G.K. Butterfield.
If you live in Nash or Franklin Counties, you’re now represented in by Republican Renee Elmers – though some of you were once represented by Butterfield.
Got it? Well, don’t worry. You won’t be quizzed.
Because of these changes, the U.S. House primaries are now set to take place June 7. They’ll still be on March 15th ballots, but votes for those candidates probably won’t be counted.
Lawson still encourages voters to mark their choices in those races, since a possible, future court ruling on the current map may change things once more.
“Vote your whole ballot, let us worry about what is an active and an inactive race, what ballots will count verses not count in particular races. So, go ahead and vote ‘em if you get ‘em.”
And what about absentee ballots? Lawson said more than 25,000 were sent out and just under 3,000 were returned by the start of this week. So these ballots will count, though new ballots for the U.S. House primaries will be sent out in early April.
And while the luster of Presidential and Gubernatorial primaries will be gone in June, Lawson believes a change in the primary format may make those U.S. House primaries more vital.
Under former rules, candidates needed at least 40 percent of the vote to move on to a possible run-off, later in the year.
Not so much this year.
“So the folks who get the most votes in those contest will be the nominees of their respective parties. So, it’s actually more important that you participate now than it was just a week or two ago.”
Because of the delayed primaries, candidates in U.S. House races have more time to campaign.
That includes Taylor Griffin, who’s running against long-time representative Walter B. Jones in the third district’s GOP primary.
Griffin, who lives in New Bern, may need that extra time since he’ll have some new territory to canvass.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to go out and meet more voters and new voters who have just been included in the district.”
Griffin, a public relations specialist who worked for the late Senator Jesse Helms and President George W. Bush, congratulated Republican law makers in the General Assembly who drew the new map which is more compact and diverse than the previous map, and under a tight deadline.
“I think the district, in many ways, under the new maps, will…help a representative in Congress to help better represent the area. We’ve gone from 22 counties to 16 and a half counties, if you include Pitt County as the half county. So, there’s an ability for the member of Congress representing the 3rd district to be much more focused on the local issues and I think that’s important.”
But many state Democrats are criticizing the new district boundaries, saying Republicans overcorrected when they created new maps that didn’t consider race at all, putting black and Latino voters – who overwhelmingly vote Democrat – in districts where their voices could get drowned out.
That’s one of several concerns for Senator Jane Smith, who represents Columbus and Robeson Counties in the General Assembly.
The area Smith represents on the state level falls into two districts on the federal level – the 7th and 9th - which are both represented by Republicans.
Though she says things are likely to remain the same in the 7th, she concedes that the 9th may be in play. There’s more territory for current representative, Robert Pittenger, but that may mean fewer people know who he is since he didn’t, previously, represent them.
“His district doesn’t have all these rural counties in it now. He would be kind of new to all these folks. I think it would be possible for a good Democrat to file and possibly win in that district. You know, who knows? But at least it’s competitive.”
Historically, Republicans turn out for mid-term elections far more than Democrats. In 2014, with a voter turnout less than 45 percent, Republican House candidates received about 300,000 more votes than their Democratic opponents.
That wasn’t the case during the last Presidential election cycle in 2012 with an overall turnout of nearly 70 percent.
Yet, North Carolina Republicans currently enjoy a 10 to 3 advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Though drawing congressional districts based on party affiliation is legal, it doesn’t sit well with Smith, though Democrats have been guilty of it in the past.
She believes districts drawn by geography and population can be done fairly without legislators that have ulterior motives.
“And I think that can be done where it is fair for everyone.”
According to the Voting Rights Act, lawmakers cannot make districts that dilute the impact of minority voters while also not corralling them in heavily concentrated areas.
ECU Political Science Professor Carmine Scarvo says it’s a legal, ethical balancing act each state in the union has to make, especially in states like North Carolina.
The state has a bleak history of black disenfranchisement, even after the passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 – nearly a century after black citizens were given the right to vote.
“So, anything that occurred before that…might have been morally wrong, and it might have been ethically wrong, it may even been unconstitutional, but it wasn’t, specifically, illegal.”
Critics on both sides of the aisle contend the practice of partisan gerrymandering is inherently flawed and should be scrapped completely. A few states have done just that.
In several western states – including Alaska, Washington, and Arizona – independent commissions are in charge of drawing congressional lines, not legislators.
Florida allows elected officials to redraw boundaries, but must, immediately, send the new map to the state supreme court to make sure they’re constitutionally sound.
Thomas Eamon is a Political Science professor at ECU.
“But the problem has been, up to this point, that the party that is in control and thinks it might keep control for a while has not wanted to give up that responsibility, or that power, would be a better way to say it.”
Legal battles over legislative boundaries, including an April 11 trial that challenges more than 24 General Assembly districts, are pending. But Scarvo believes the June 7 House Primary date is settled.
But, does he believe the end of the gerrymandering saga in North Carolina is even close to ending?
“No. [Laugher] No.”