North Carolina Senate approves new Senate district map

(The Center Square) – The North Carolina Senate approved a new legislative map for state Senate districts Wednesday despite strong opposition from Democrats and criticism from analysts.

The Senate voted along party lines, 26-19, for the proposed map, which split several urban districts.

Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, D-Wake, and Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, pushed seven amendments the pair said would constitute a fairer map. All of the amendments were tabled.

The Legislature must reconstruct district maps every 10 years, corresponding with the release on U.S. census data. The 2020 census showed the state’s population grew by more than 888,000 residents. The state has faced a string of lawsuits, causing district maps to be redrawn in 2016 for racial gerrymandering and in 2019 for partisan gerrymandering.

Princeton analysts gave the Senate map an F grade for its fairness, while Chaudhuri drew an alternative map that earned an A grade. The Legislature did not consider it.

The Democrats’ proposal would have reduced the number of split districts from 10, which they said would make the map more compact; part of the criteria for the maps.

According to the requirements for the map, keeping it compact and only splitting counties when they need to be split would limit “partisan consideration,” which is banned from the process. Redistricting software used by the General Assembly found the map scored a mean of 0.42 and 0.34 for its compactness, with 1 being the most compact.

In addition to Princeton, Duke University experts told WRAL reporters the maps produced by the Republican-led Legislature reflect “extreme partisan gerrymandering.” Republican map drawers, however, said they did not consider political data in developing the maps.

Voting advocates also have filed a lawsuit to block the maps from being enacted because lawmakers did not examine racial data. Redistricting committee co-chair Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus, said the committee was avoiding being accused of racial gerrymandering.

Republican leaders of the Senate Committee on Redistricting and Elections have continued to stand by the Senate maps, which they said follows the criteria. The proposal now heads to the House for approval.

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