North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is asking the courts to look at gerrymandered maps in the northeastern part of his state, a move that — judging by the disapproving comments online — triggers a number of his constituents.
A Democratic Governor of a Southern U.S. State, Cooper is accustomed to standing outside the mainstream — Cooper’s Tar Heel territory is hemmed in by four states — Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina — that all have Republicans (Youngkin, Lee, Kemp and McMaster) in their respective Governor’s Mansions.
Yet despite the sometimes contentious conservative company — inside and outside the state — Cooper has remained committed to calling out GOP malfeasance where he sees it. The new voting maps qualify, Cooper asserts, because they “do not reflect the true will of North Carolinians.”
The maps, Cooper says, are an example of how “legislative Republicans time after time continue to illegally discriminate to hold on to power.” Cooper’s phrasing doesn’t just condemn the current gerrymandering, but references what he, with his “time after time” jab, characterizes as a common Republican practice.
Legislative Republicans time after time continue to illegally discriminate to hold on to power. Their new voting maps violate the Voting Rights Act and do not reflect the true will of North Carolinians. It’s time for the Courts to step in once again. – RC https://t.co/Tr3n87xkyo
— Governor Roy Cooper (@NC_Governor) February 6, 2024
Gerrymandering, of course, is nothing new, and it’s not unique to the South. But high profile cases in Alabama — where the Supreme Court determined that GOP-drawn electoral maps violated the Voting Rights Act — and elsewhere have brought renewed attention to the voting challenges that monolithic majority legislatures present to minority communities that lack sufficient representation.
Cooper and NC Attorney General Josh Stein are now asking the courts to look at the new maps in State Senate districts in northeastern NC for the same violation, claiming that they “should not be used in the 2024 elections because they violate the Voting Rights Act.”
In filing his gerrymander challenge, Cooper is not unique. The Brennan Center for Justice reported that “as of July 7, 2023, a total of 74 cases have been filed challenging congressional and legislative maps in 27 states as racially discriminatory and/or partisan gerrymanders, of which 45 remain pending at either the trial or appellate levels.”
And trying to carve out favorable districts through electoral mapping is hardly a GOP-only strategy, even if it’s the current case in North Carolina. A court recently tossed new maps in New York saying they wrongfully favored Democrats. One weary commenter added this hope/request:
I’m sick of crying about Gerry-mandering & voter suppression. Both parties when in the maj draw lines that benefit their party. This country is in piss-poor shape. Work on real election integrity laws.
— ShaIsTired (@Sha14978250) February 6, 2024
