VIDEO: Gerrymandering is like the fox guarding the henhouse

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A new video from Common Cause NC shows how letting politicians draw their own voting districts is “like letting the fox guard the henhouse.”

Both parties have been guilty of gerrymandering in North Carolina, manipulating legislative and congressional districts to unfairly favor their own side.  But whichever party has done the gerrymandering, the result has been the same: voters left without a voice in our elections.

Fortunately, there is growing momentum to end gerrymandering in North Carolina.

A January survey from Public Policy Polling found that nearly 60 percent of North Carolina voters want nonpartisan redistricting, with just 15 percent in favor of the current partisan system.

House Bill 200 offers a real solution to gerrymandering in North Carolina. The proposal would take redistricting power out of the hands of legislators and give it to an impartial body, which in turn would draw fair voting districts free from partisan politics.

The bill has bipartisan support in the NC House, led by four Republicans, and enjoys overwhelming support among North Carolina voters. Yet, GOP legislative leaders have stubbornly refused to give HB200 a vote.

However, recent judicial decisions have given advocates of nonpartisan redistricting hope for real progress in ending gerrymandering.

In January, a federal court issued a landmark ruling in Common Cause v. Rucho, striking down the legislature’s blatant partisan gerrymander of the state’s congressional maps. That decision marked the first time in North Carolina’s history that a court ruled partisan gerrymandering – like racial gerrymandering – is unconstitutional. The ultimate fate of that case now rests with the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, over 100 business owners have launched a coalition calling for an end to gerrymandering. And nearly 300 locally elected officials from 140 towns and cities across the state have urged the legislature to take politics out of the redistricting process.

TAKE ACTION: Join the fight for fair voting maps in North Carolina