Tag Archives: redistricting

OH Supreme Court Strikes Down State Maps Again

The Columbus Dispatch reports: The Ohio Supreme Court once again rejected legislative maps that Republicans drew to disproportionately favor their candidates, sending mapmakers back to the drawing board and Ohio’s primary into massive uncertainty. For the second time, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, joined with three Democratic justices to reject state House and Senate approved by Republicans on the …

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SCOTUS Allows Alabama Redistricting To Stay In Place

CNN reports: The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, allowed a congressional map drawn by Alabama Republicans to remain in place Monday, freezing a lower court ruling that said the map likely violates the Voting Rights Act. The lower court had ordered a new map to be drawn, which could have led to Democrats gaining another seat in the House …

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NC State Supreme Court Strikes Down US House Map

Raleigh’s NBC News affiliate reports: The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday night voted to strike down new voting maps Republicans passed in November. The high court issued a 4-3 decision split along ideological lines. The voting maps passed in November strongly favored the GOP, with the party slated to win 10 or 11 of the 14 U.S. House seats …

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GOP Sues After NY Gov Signs Redistricting Into Law

The New York Daily News reports: Gov. Hochul signed New York’s new congressional and legislative maps into law on Thursday, capping a chaotic process and two days of bitter feuding in Albany, where the ruling Democrats drew new district lines over Republican opposition. Hochul inked her signature to bills codifying the maps after lawmakers approved legislative redistricting earlier in the …

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Dems Set To Pick Up 3 House Seats In NY Redistricting

The Washington Post reports: Democratic state legislators in New York released a congressional redistricting map Sunday that redrew House lines to give Democrats as many as three more seats at a time when the party’s majority is in jeopardy. The New York map is the latest redistricting win for Democrats who had been expected to suffer at the hands of …

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GOP TX Senator Testifies That Redistricting Was Racist

The Texas Tribune reports: In a sworn declaration submitted as part of an ongoing federal court challenge, a senior Republican state senator with redistricting experience said he believes his party violated federal voting laws when it drew new boundaries for state Senate District 10 in the Fort Worth area. “Having participated in the 2011 and 2013 Senate Select Redistricting Committee …

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Kansas GOP Map Gerrymanders “Woke” University Town Into Pro-Trump District That Is Five Hours Away By Car

The Associated Press reports: The Republicans who control the Kansas Legislature are close to passing a congressional redistricting plan that marries an eastern Kansas community proud of its “woke” politics to Trump-loving small towns and farms five hours west by car on the expansive and stark plains. Democratic legislators and some local officials see the worst kind of gerrymandering in …

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Federal Court Blocks Alabama’s New US House Map

The Birmingham News reports: The Alabama Legislature’s redistricting plan for 2022 will not take effect for congressional races after a panel of three federal court judges found the map dilutes the voting power of Black residents and blocked the proposal. Two separate federal lawsuits were filed against the redistricting map on claims that it violated the Voting Rights Act by …

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Ohio Supreme Court Strikes Down New US House Map

The Columbus Dispatch reports: The Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state’s congressional district map Friday, saying Republicans violated the Ohio Constitution by drawing districts that favored GOP candidates. Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor was, once again, a key vote in the 4-3 decision to reject the map, which could have given Republicans as much as a 12-3 …

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Ohio Supreme Court Strikes Down GOP Redistricting

The Columbus Dispatch reports: The Ohio Supreme Court struck down GOP-drawn state House and Senate district maps as unconstitutional gerrymandering in a 4-3 decision Wednesday, sending the maps back to the drawing board. Advocates of redistricting reform hailed the decision as a resounding victory for Ohio voters who overwhelmingly approved changes to the state constitution to limit partisan line-drawing in …

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Analysis: Good News For Democrats On Redistricting

David Wasserman writes at Cook Political Report: The surprising good news for Democrats: on the current trajectory, there will be a few more Biden-won districts after redistricting than there are now — producing a congressional map slightly less biased in the GOP’s favor than the last decade’s. The start of 2022 is an ideal time to take stock of the …

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ACLU Sues Georgia Over Racist Redistricting Law

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: Gov. Brian Kemp signed new Georgia political maps into law Thursday, finalizing Republican efforts to solidify their majorities in a rapidly changing state as opponents immediately filed three court challenges. The federal lawsuits allege that both congressional and state maps are racially discriminatory because they reduce the voting strength of people of color who tend to …

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Jordan Allies Rage Over Ohio GOP’s Redistricting Map

Fox News reports: Allies of Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan are furious with the state Senate GOP for potentially putting the prominent House Republican’s seat on the line in a proposed redistricting map, Fox News has learned. The Buckeye State’s Senate Republican Party proposed a redistricting map last week that turned heads and drew ire from Jordan’s allies. According to the …

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Texas Senate Advances Redistricting Map That Would Pit Black US House Democrats Against Each Other In 2022

The Texas Tribune reports: U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green — both Houston Democrats — testified Monday at the Texas Capitol against proposed district maps that would break up communities of Black voters and pit the two incumbents against each other. “It doesn’t look right for the only two persons in the state of Texas to be running …

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Texas Begins Redistricting Process And Yes, It’s Racist

The Texas Tribune reports: The Texas State Senate kicked off the decennial redistricting process on Saturday when it released the first draft of its own members’ district maps. State Sen. Beverly Powell, D-Burleson, immediately called foul on the initial draft of the map, which was authored by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee. Powell’s district is …

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Texas GOP Has “Freer Hand” In Drawing New Districts

The Texas Tribune reports: The 2020 census captured a Texas that does not exist in its halls of power: a diverse state that is growing almost exclusively because of people of color and where the Hispanic and white populations are nearly equal in size. But when the Texas Legislature convenes Monday to do the work of incorporating a decade’s worth …

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Dems Likely To Sue Over Lopsided OH Redistricting

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports: Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission approved a four-year map for state House and Senate districts over the objections of Democrats shortly after Wednesday’s 11:59 p.m. deadline. The 5-2 vote along partisan lines came after hours of back-and-forth negotiations broke down. The final map gives Republicans a veto-proof majority. Republicans justified the maps by saying Ohioans …

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Census: White Population Shrank For First Time Ever

The Wall Street Journal reports: The first detailed results of the 2020 census show that the total white population shrank for the first time in the nation’s history as the U.S. diversified and continued to grow more rapidly in the South and Southwest. The nation’s population grew just 7.4% during the decade, the second slowest on record for a decennial …

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Census Data Launches Flood Of Redistricting Lawsuits

Roll Call reports: Within hours after the Census Bureau’s release of census apportionment results, the first wave of redistricting lawsuits hit federal courthouses in what is likely to be a flood of legal battles leading up to the 2022 congressional elections. A national Democratic redistricting group backed three voter lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Louisiana, the “first of many steps” …

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