The court challenge comes after the legislature blocked the results of Watauga’s countywide vote choosing fair local districts over state lawmakers’ gerrymandered versions 

BOONE, NORTH CAROLINA – A group of Watauga County voters, joined by the nonpartisan groups Watauga County Voting Rights Taskforce and Common Cause North Carolina, đã đệ đơn kiện in federal court today challenging state lawmakers’ manipulation of county voting maps.

These local residents are going to court to challenge the legislature’s gerrymander of the Watauga County Board of Commissioners and the Watauga County Board of Education. Senator Ralph Hise of Mitchell County pushed through two bills that established unfair voting maps that violate the core constitutional principle of “one-person, one-vote.”

The suit also challenges an unconstitutional law passed by the legislature to block the results of a countywide referendum that was placed on the 2024 ballot in response to the legislature’s gerrymander, in which an overwhelming 71% of Watauga voters voted to adopt locally drawn, fair districts for Watauga County elections.

“Watauga County residents voted to adopt fair districts while rejecting the gerrymandered maps imposed on us by the legislature,” said Ray Russell, a former Watauga County Commissioner and a plaintiff in the case. “We’re filing this lawsuit to protect our mountain community against the unconstitutional overreach by politicians in Raleigh.”

The lawsuit, Watauga County Voting Rights Task Force v. Watauga County Board of Elections, was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. The complaint outlines how the legislature’s actions violate Watauga County voters’ First Amendment rights as well as equal protection of their votes under the 14th Amendment. Sen. Hise and GOP legislators singled out disfavored Watauga County voters, placed illegal burdens on the residents’ right to vote, and discriminated against them based on their viewpoint.

“We’re speaking up for our fellow Watauga County voters and for all North Carolinians,” said Cathy Williamson, a Watauga County resident and a State Advisory Board member with Common Cause North Carolina. “If the legislature’s illegal actions are allowed to stand, it could open the door for self-serving politicians to disenfranchise voters from the Appalachian Mountains to the Albemarle Sound. We can’t let that happen.”

Background on the case: Watauga County residents challenge an unconstitutional abuse of power by politicians in Raleigh

As chair of the NC Senate’s Elections Committee in 2023, Sen. Ralph Hise of Mitchell County pushed through controversial legislation dictating sweeping changes to the structure of Watauga County Board of Commissioners elections and imposed gerrymandered commissioner districts to benefit his preferred candidates.

Another bill sponsored by Sen. Hise then forced the Watauga County Board of Education to also use the same gerrymandered districts, further undermining fair elections for residents.

The legislation manipulated voting maps to single out students at Appalachian State University, packing most into two overpopulated districts and undermining their voices in elections. To do this, the maps split multiple voting precincts – for instance, one precinct northwest of the town of Boone straddles three different districts. The maps create a nearly 10% variance from biggest to smallest district that dilutes the overall voting power of disfavored Watauga residents.

In 2024, members of the Watauga County Board of Commissioners responded to the blatant gerrymander by voting to place a referendum on the 2024 ballot that would allow local voters to choose whether to adopt fair, locally drawn voting maps. The process for doing that is provided to all county commissions under North Carolina law.

Unlike the legislature’s gerrymandered map, the Watauga County Board of Commissioners proposed two at-large seats and three districts drawn under the conditions that:

• the mapmaker could not consider the party affiliation of voters in drawing the new districts
• the districts had to be as equal in population as possible
• the new districts had to be contiguous, so as to not break up communities

In November 2024, 71% of Watauga County voters chose to adopt the election structure and local voting map proposed by the board of commissioners. The locally developed map and plan were supported by a majority of voters in every precinct.

But even before that referendum could take place, Sen. Hise and his GOP colleagues lashed out at Watauga voters, taking the unprecedented action of pre-emptively blocking the referendum results and delaying implementation of the fair, voter-approved maps until 2034 – a restriction imposed on no other county in North Carolina.

Now, Watauga County voters along with the Watauga County Voting Rights Taskforce and Common Cause North Carolina are standing up for local residents by filing this lawsuit to stop the legislature’s abuse of power.

“From the statehouse to the schoolhouse, voters — not politicians — should decide who represents them,” said Omar Noureldin, Common Cause Senior Vice President of Policy and Litigation. “We will challenge every attempt to flip that principle on its head because no community is too small to protect.”

“There’s no doubt that politicians in Raleigh violated the law, ignored the will of voters, and trampled on the rights of Watauga County residents,” said Bob Phillips, Giám đốc điều hành của Common Cause North Carolina. “We’re proud to stand with the people of Watauga County as they stand up to protect their freedom to vote against the legislature’s unconstitutional actions.”

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