Lawsuit challenges redrawn districts as unfair to voters

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A lawsuit filed Jan. 31 by 11 North Carolina voters contend Republican-drawn legislative maps violate the state constitution's guarantee of fair elections.

A new challenge to North Carolina’s redrawn electoral map contends gerrymandered redistricting takes away the right to fair elections.

Eleven voters from across the state filed a lawsuit on Jan. 31 – the first of its kind in North Carolina history – challenging the legitimacy of lawmaker-drawn election districts for violating the constitutional right to fair elections.  The suit, filed in Wake County Superior Court, alleges that the Republican-controlled General Assembly violated the state constitution’s guarantee of fair elections last year when it passed new voting districts for congressional and legislative elections.

“By intentionally manipulating the electoral odds and stacking the electorate to give an unfair electoral advantage to a particular political party and candidates in selected districts, the General Assembly has attempted to preordain the outcome of elections in certain districts…” the plaintiffs wrote.

“It all comes down to this question: Do North Carolina voters have a right to fair elections under our state constitution?” said Robert Orr, an attorney for the plaintiffs and a former state Supreme Court justice. “If the answer to that question is ‘yes,’ then any time politicians of either party apportion voters to predetermine winners and losers, it’s a clear violation of North Carolinians’ state constitutional rights.” 

The suit cites Article I of the state Constitution, which gives citizens certain “enumerated rights,” such as the right to “frequent” elections and “free” elections.  The complaint challenges the fairness of redistricting of U.S. House districts 6, 13 and 14; state Senate District 7 and state House District 105. Orr, who was elected to the state Supreme Court as a Republican but is now independent, said the lawsuit is the first one to challenge the legitimacy of lawmakers creating districts that violate voters’ constitutional right to fair elections.

“As it relates to the lawsuit filed…that’s exactly what the North Carolina General Assembly did when drawing these new congressional and legislative maps: they stuffed election districts with selected voters to virtually ensure a preordained election outcome, and in doing so, they violated the rights of North Carolina voters,” he said.

The plaintiffs are voters from Buncombe, Guilford, Johnston, Mecklenburg, New Hanover and Wake counties. Nine are Democrats; two are unaffiliated.

Last week’s suit is the latest challenge to the redrawn maps, which in theory will increase Republican control of the state legislature and break a 7-7 tie in North Carolina’s congressional delegation. In December 2023, voting rights groups, including the state NAACP, filed a lawsuit, alleging the new districts are racial gerrymanders that violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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