The 4th most gerrymandered state in the U.S.

How does it strike you to learn that North Carolina is the 4^th most gerrymandered state in the U.S? Your vote doesn’t count as much as another person. Said more plainly, our elections are rigged.

A comprehensive study conducted by the Harvard ALARM (Algorithm-Assisted Redistricting Methodology) project studied the 44 states in which there was more than one congressional district and determined that North Carolina trails only Texas, California and Florida in manipulating voting districts to arrive at pre-ordained election results. These conclusions were reached after thousands of computer-generated runs.

Further extreme gerrymandering might have backfired, causing Republicans to actually lose seats.

This news should reverberate around our state like the fabled “shot heard round the world” we we commemorated on the 250^th anniversary of freedom in this country. It runs counter to the principles we embraced in our Declaration that all are created equal.

In truth, we are being governed by a minority, who are elected by minorities, from districts manipulated so that only selected persons or parties can win. That’s not democracy.

It would be easy to point the finger of blame at Republicans; they have been drawing the district maps since taking power in 2012. But in fairness we must acknowledge that Democrats did the same thing when they controlled our state – just not to the same extent.

Their actions are calculated and systematic, using techniques called cracking, packing and stacking. Districts are “cracked” so that voters not likely to vote for favored party candidates are moved or diluted into other districts.

Witness our 1^st Congressional District. At the urging of President Trump, our legislature cracked the 1^st Congressional District by moving 6 counties that traditionally vote heavily for Democrats, into the 3^rd District. They simultaneously moved counties that traditionally had voted Republican from the 3^rd District into the 1^st District to defeat incumbent Democrat Don Davis. Interestingly, that 1^st District was initially created using the technique called “packing.” Previous map drawers had packed as many Black Democratic voters into the district as they could, ensuring that a Democrat would win the district, thus making other districts more favorable to Republicans. Stacking a district means moving selected groups into districts dominated by favored candidates. Their votes won’t affect the outcome.

Former Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, who initiated a lawsuit insisting that voters deserve free and fair elections said, “The legislature in North Carolina has used massive political data on voters and sophisticated computer technology to stack the deck in favor of Republican candidates. By manipulating precincts based on voters’ political leanings, the government has tried to rig the outcomes in congressional and legislative districts across the state. They have destroyed the concept of fair elections.”

On one thing is clear: we must not allow elected politicians to determine the districts and the methods by which we select those who would represent us. They don’t serve the public - they serve only themselves.

What can we do? Other states have struggled with this problem. The solution most reach is to form independent redistricting commissions. That sounds like good solution but is almost impossible in North Carolina. Here’s why.

Our Constitution, in Article II, gives the General Assembly of our state absolute authority in drawing up congressional and legislative districts. “The General Assembly, at the first regular session convening after the return of every decennial census of population taken by the order of Congress, shall revise the districts….” for the state Senate, the House and congress. It goes on to require that each district should contain, as nearly as possible, an equal number of inhabitants, that it shall “at all times consist of contiguous territory,” and that the districts, “shall remain unaltered until the return of another decennial census of population taken by order of Congress.”

Our legislature clearly violated that last codicil by altering congressional districts last year at the request of the President, not because there was a new census. Any proposal must be approved by the very people who created the problem.

To correct this egregious practice will require either dictates of the courts or a new Constitution. North Carolina’s Supreme Court has clearly demonstrated its willingness to participate in partisan politics, as has our U.S. Supreme Court. Sadly, no amendment or proposal for a new Constitution can be initiated without a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature.

Our founders never envisioned dealing with a legislature that functioned without regard to the interests of the majority. More Democrats voted than Republicans, yet the GOP rules.

Perhaps it is time North Carolina consider joining the 26 other states that allow citizen-initiated ballot referendums, where a specified number of signatures can request a direct vote of the people, effectively circumventing the legislature.

We no longer want to be the 4^th most gerrymandered state in the nation.

Tom Campbell is a Hall of Fame North Carolina broadcaster and columnist who has covered North Carolina public policy issues since 1965.  Contact him at tomcamp@ncspin.com