NC Redistricting roundup

It’s been a hectic week in NC redistricting news.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice went ahead as expected and pre-cleared North Carolina’s new maps. Char-O story
But just before that there was a revelation that thousands of voters were left out of the maps. GOP leaders downplayed the error saying it was a technical glitch. Get used to that phrase. This WRAL story has lots of links to the details on the areas left out, which appear at first blush to be around mainly Democratic areas.
Now, the lawsuits begin with one filed yesterday and another today. Plaintiffs in the suit filed Thursday include a number of Democrats including a former senator from Fayetteville.

Link to the suit filed Thursday(pdf)

(I’ll post the new suit, brought by a coalition of groups including the state NAACP, the League of Women Voters and Democracy NC as soon as I can get a link.)

Reaction from Around the State:

Folks in Asheville are pretty upset.

Another call for redistricting reform from today’s Char-O editorial:

It may well be legal. But we know it can’t be labeled fair – not when it makes 10 of 13 congressional districts lean Republican in a state that is pretty evenly divided in terms of party preference.

The Winston-Salem Journal notes that lines in Forsyth are among those singled out in one of the suits. The residence of Senator Linda Garrou, one of 44 plaintiffs listed, was drawn out of her current district.

One Forsyth County plaintiff, Hayes McNeill, who is active in the state and local Democratic Party, said that the exclusion of Garrou from her district was “a spiteful thing.”

“These maps are so bad, there has never been as many split precincts on any map of North Carolina,” McNeill said. “A lot of us for years have wanted to see an independent commission do this. This is patently unfair.”