Aside from this year’s highly contested budget, redistricting is probably the most controversial issue to come forth since the Republican’s took control in last November’s election.
Today’s Joint Legislative Committee on Redistricting meeting, while informational, was more accusatory than anything. Democrats spent a majority of the two hour meeting claiming that their concerns had not been heard by the Republican majority.
Even through all the disagreements, the meeting was important because it did publicize the redistricting schedule for the next month. Senior Chair of the Committee, Rep. Lewis, outlined the tentative Committee Schedule beginning with Full senate and house draft maps coming out on July 1st. Following their release, beginning July 7th, public hearings on the full maps would be held throughout North Carolina, with those locations to be determined. The Joint Legislative Committee on Redistricting will then meet on July 13th, 14th, and 15th (and additional days if necessary) and then the passage of the redistricting maps will be taken up on July 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st (and additional days if necessary).
Tensions rose throughout the meeting, just as they had previously, as Democrats accused Republicans of not including them in the process. Chair Lewis assured the members that original e-mails to committee members asking for input would be resent since many democrats said they had not received the mentioned e-mails. Reps. Bryant and Parmon expressed concern over making sure that the Voting Rights Act would be followed during this entire process.
While there is currently much controversy at the North Carolina General Assembly over redistricting, House Bill 824 Nonpartisan Redistricting process is trying to end current redistricting policies. Modeled after Iowa’s process, HB 824 would take the redistricting process out of legislators’ hands and into the control of nonpartisan staff during the next redistricting process in 2020. The bill has already passed through the NC House with a favorable report and is now in the Senate’s Committee on Rules and Operations.
