Associated Press: Redistricting lawsuit victors say NC House map falls short

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — One-third of the North Carolina House districts that state legislators redrew this month because of previous excessive bias favoring Republicans are still flawed by partisanship and secrecy, victors in a recent redistricting lawsuit warned on Friday.

Lawyers for Common Cause, the state Democratic Party and Democratic voters filed their formal objections to 19 House districts in state court. They asked the three-judge panel that ruled in their favor three weeks ago in a partisan gerrymandering case to step in and take over the redrawing in five multi-county groupings containing the districts, likely through an outside referee the judges picked.

They lodged no complaints against the Senate map, which received strong bipartisan support in the chamber.

“This court gave the General Assembly an opportunity to draw remedial maps and cure their prior constitutional violations,” attorney Eddie Speas wrote for the plaintiffs. “Although its process was not without flaws, the Senate has done so. But the House has not.”