elections

Democrats and progressive groups successful and "surreptitiously" injected their supporters into the redistricting process to influence the redistricting to favor Democrats in California. All On The Line, an organization affiliated with Eric Holder's National Democratic Redistricting Committee, is seeking to replicate what Democrats did in California here in North Carolina. All On The Line's endgame is to help Holder in redistricting lawsuits against North Carolina.

Political and racial data are appropriately banned from consideration when legislators draw district maps. Preventing "double bunking" of incumbents can prevent map drawers from following redistricting best practices such as maximizing compactness and respecting political boundaries. "Community of interest" is a nebulous concept and often less helpful to drawing good districts than many believe it to be.

Congressional districts must be equal in population, but legislators have some flexibility regarding population equality when drawing state legislative districts. Districts must be contiguous, and the rules are precise about what counts as contiguous. Districts are required to be compact, but North Carolina's geography often makes that impossible.

North Carolina's constitution and related court cases severely limit how counties can be divided when forming state legislative districts. Precincts sometimes must be split when forming districts but doing so is disruptive for election officials and voters and should be avoided. It is often not practical to follow municipal boundaries when drawing district maps.

Multimember districts for the North Carolina General Assembly were once common but were struck down over how they diluted minority voting strength. Multimember districts disconnect representatives from their constituents. Multimember districts force voters to consider many more candidates, making ballots more confusing.

The rush of “Zuck bucks” into North Carolina election boards in 2020 exposed the danger of private election administration funding. The General Assembly should ban direct private election administration funding, and a Democrat-sponsored bill could be the vehicle to generate a veto-proof majority in support of a ban. The bill has several flaws that the General Assembly should address before passing it, however.

House Bill 495 (“Redistricting Criteria for 2021”) has several good elements that legislators should include in any redistricting plan they pass. But the bill falls short of ideal in how it mandates the use of political data in the redistricting process. It also fails to protect counties from being unnecessarily split and appears to define “community of interest” to advantage Democrats.

The NC State Board of Elections is attempting to make our elections process less transparent. The state board’s attempt to limit the number of observers to two per day is contrary to state law. North Carolina citizens have the power to speak directly to the state board about their proposed rule changes.

Under North Carolina law, absentee ballots can be delivered in person legally only by the voter or a near relative. Regardless, the North Carolina State Board of Elections requires county boards of elections to accept illegally transmitted ballots, no questions asked. Either the State Board of Elections should modify its no-questions-asked policy or the General Assembly should clarify what should be done with illegally transmitted ballots.

Senate Bill 326 would stop the privatization of election funding, require absentee ballots to be returned by election day, as is required in most states, and provide funding to help people get voter IDs.