Elections should represent the will of the people. When politicians are allowed to draw their own maps, they manipulate the system to keep themselves in power. We need to make the process of drawing voting maps be fair and transparent, so that our government is “of, by and for the people.”
Our freedom, our liberty depends upon three fundamental elements: a free press; free speech; and free and fair elections. Remove any one of the three, and America will no longer be the “land of the free”.
North Carolina voters must play an active role in redistricting reform if we are to have fair maps in North Carolina. The only path for redistricting reform goes through the North Carolina state legislature – which means NC voters must demand fair districts from candidates and representatives.
The current extremist super-majority in the North Carolina General Assembly has systematically attacked fair elections to the point that the state legislature no longer represents the will of the people of North Carolina. These unpatriotic attacks on American Democracy have resulted in multiple court cases, costing North Carolina taxpayers millions of dollars. We need fair elections, including making the process of drawing electoral maps impartial and transparent, so that the North Carolina government is of, by and for the people.
North Carolina is an oligarchy disguised as a representative democracy. Gerrymandering gives the illusion that the people in control have popular support. The party drawing the map can design the districts so that their party will almost always win, even if fewer people vote for them. The NC legislature has rigged the game so that they will always win, no matter how much North Carolina looses.
North Carolina’s “monster” voting law imposed a number of voting restrictions and was struck down by the US 4th Cir. Court of Appeals, which held that the law was “enacted with racially discriminatory intent in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and § 2 of the Voting Rights Act”. Ousted former NC governor McCrory appealed it to the US Supreme Court a few days before he left office.
In 2011, the NC GOP used a high-priced private consultant and sophisticated software to draw North Carolina’s electoral districts to suit themselves. There are now at least five ongoing cases based on North Carolina’s electoral district maps. The two NC gerrymandering cases with actions currently pending before SCOTUS are “Harris v. McCrory” and “Covington v. North Carolina”.
By the power invested in me as a person with a keyboard and internet connection, I hereby declare that January 20, 2017 is “Fund Freedom Friday”!
North Carolinians voted overwhelmingly to elect Mike Morgan to NC State Supreme Court. Now we are hearing again that the North Carolina General Assembly and Ex-Governor may deliberately undermine North Carolinians by adding two new Governor-appointed Judges to the State Supreme Court.
EveryVoiceNC 