ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — A former North Carolina Supreme Court justice is leading the latest lawsuit seeking to get the state’s political district maps thrown out.
Bob Orr and a group of voters want justices to declare the state’s constitution gives North Carolina voters the right to "fair” elections.
Several district lines on the state and federal level have been redrawn in recent years and that's led to frustration and confusion for even some frequent voters.
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“It's very important that we know who we are putting in office as far as leaders,” said Ronald Spence, Sr.
Experts say Spence is not alone in having trouble keeping up with the twists and turns when it comes to redistricting.
“When we redraw the lines, sometimes it's hard for voters and candidates,” said Todd Collins, a professor and head of the Political Science and Public Affairs Department at Western Carolina University. "So for example, you have neighborhoods that are split in half and you may be voting differently in a different district than the person across the street from you."
Debates over redistricting and gerrymandering in North Carolina have gone back decades.
Most recently, the maps used in the 2022 election were written under court order and that could only happen once.
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So, the Republican majority in the General Assembly wrote new maps and the newly Republican-controlled state Supreme Court allowed those maps to move forward.
That hasn’t stopped groups like the North Carolina NAACP from filing lawsuits to get those maps overturned.
"It dismantles the ability of Blacks to effectively elect preferred candidates, and it discourages potential candidates that may normally run,” said Keith Rivers, president of the Pasquotank County Branch of the NAACP.
Collins said that high courts on the state and federal level have upheld that lawmakers can redraw maps on a political basis, so lawsuits using that as a factor aren't likely to succeed. But redrawing lines solely based on race is still out of bounds.
"I think that that's the best shot for voters if they think that their votes are being diluted or that their right to free elections, is being impacted,” Collins said.
One of the redistricting lawsuits involved two state senate seats in northeastern North Carolina and the judge as part of his ruling said it's just too close to the primary election to make any changes to those district lines.
Absentee voting by mail is already underway for the March 5 primary election and in-person early voting begins on Feb. 15.
