News Clips

NAACP, Common Cause and NC voters sue Republican legislatures for racially gerrymandered maps

Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said, "North Carolina legislators have imposed discriminatory voting maps that outrageously attack the rights of Black North Carolinians. Sadly, racist gerrymandering once again plagues our state and harms voters. We must defeat it. Our voting districts don’t belong to politicians; our districts belong to the people. We must have voting maps that are free from racist gerrymandering and that respect the freedom of all voters."

The suit by the state NAACP, Common Cause and eight Black voters says that the election districts violate the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. constitutional amendments that prohibit racial discrimination.

"We know that all voters deserve to have their vote count equally and that is not what these maps do, and it is clear that that was not the intent of the legislative leadership," said Ann Webb, policy director for Common Cause North Carolina, a government watchdog group.

“The only path forward for redistricting in North Carolina is for an independent citizens commission to take the power out of the hands of politicians and put it back with the people,” said Tyler Daye with Common Cause North Carolina during a rally against the maps.

Open government groups such as Common Cause North Carolina criticized the mapmaking process, calling it "a total failure of transparency." "A handful of politicians drew new districts behind closed doors, keeping the public in the dark. But lawmakers still have a chance to do better," Common Cause North Carolina Executive Director Bob Phillips said