“It Is Time To Settle The Election…” US Supreme Court On The Verge Of Taking Case On Election Disputes

Gerrymandering. Let’s be honest with ourselves. Both parties do it. When the Democrats are in control, they change the map to favor themselves, as do Republicans. It has been rumored that the Supreme Court may review North Carolina’s Supreme Court ruling regarding the district maps.

It is a numbers game. North Carolina is going to have another district added, making it 14. Currently, there are five Democrats and 8 Republicans. Adding a 14th congressional district in North Carolina would have most likely resulted in 10 out of 14 victories for the Republicans if North Carolina’s Supreme Court didn’t toss out their map. The newly approved map now gives Democrats a better chance of winning more seats.

The songs of “what-about-isms” are loud and clear. 10 out of 14 seats in favor of Republicans does sound like the Republicans were trying to pull a fast one. So it could be said that North Carolina’s Supreme Court ruling was correct and didn’t overstep its role in government. What transpired afterward was also unconstitutional. A three-judge panel in the Wake County Superior Court created the new map that will be followed in the 2022 elections.

In the U.S. Constitution, Article 1. Section 5; “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections,” no mention of judges, mind you.

When North Carolina House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore spoke regarding his appeal of the state Supreme Court’s ruling, “The U.S. Constitution is crystal clear: state legislatures are responsible for drawing congressional maps, not state court judges.” He is not entirely wrong. He should have referred to North Carolina’s state Constitution, for each state governs its elections differently.

It is evident in North Carolina’s State Constitution that the General Assembly, meaning the representatives that were elected from the districts, are the ones who revise the maps following the census population is taken. In Article 2 Section 5, the role of the General Assembly is crystal clear. The Speaker should also remember this quote from Article 2 Section 5:

“No county shall be divided in the formation of a representative district.”

By looking at the map of North Carolina, there are quite a few districts that break this rule. The new district 14 is one of them.

Let’s be fair here; the map that the GOP tried to pass suffered from the same problem by purposefully making districts 5 and 9 permanently Republican. District 9 looked like it was drawn by a two-year-old learning how to draw a circle. The county of Mecklenburg was cut three ways in the Republican version.

I must concur with Moore. The constitution is clear. It is time to settle the problem of gerrymandering once and for all.