January 23, 2018

Court throws out Pennsylvania redistricting

Feminist Daily News Wire - The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state’s Republican drawn congressional districts are unconstitutional and ordered they be redrawn in the next several weeks.

Pennsylvania’s February 9 deadline means that the district lines will be redrawn before the May congressional primary. Democrats are hoping the new map could help the party pick up as many as half a dozen seats in the 2018 elections.

The ruling in Pennsylvania comes less than two weeks after three federal appeals judges ruled that North Carolina’s congressional district map is also unconstitutional, as the map was drawn to give an overwhelming political advantage to Republicans.

North Carolina’s map was supposed to be redrawn by January 24, but the Supreme Court has agreed to pause that timeline, meaning the unconstitutional district lines could still be in effect when the November elections occur.

Pennsylvania and North Carolina are two of the most gerrymandered states in the country. In 2016, Republicans won 10 of the 13 congressional seats in North Carolina despite only winning 53 percent of the popular vote.

2 comments:

Greg Gerritt said...

Time for non partisan redistricitng everywhere. Now.

Anonymous said...

Better yet: statewide elections by interest groups not locations.