RALEIGH, N.C. (CN) — A judge sided with North Carolina Republicans on Friday and declined to block Senate election maps that have been challenged as racially gerrymandered.
The lawsuit, filed by two Black voters, argued the new maps enacted in October 2023 diluted their votes because they were moved to majority-white districts in an area where voting is racially polarized. Two other election map lawsuits have also been filed, one claiming congressional maps disregards traditional voting principles and another — the most comprehensive to date — claiming that congressional, state Senate and House maps break up minority districts and dilute Black votes.
In a 69-page order, U.S. District Judge James Dever III denied the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction to redraft Senate election maps in northeastern North Carolina.
The plaintiffs immediately appealed.
Dever described the request to file an injunction as “extraordinary” and said no evidence was provided to prove that the Voting Rights Act requires the General Assembly to create a majority-Black Senate district.
“Plaintiffs are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their Section 2 (Voting Rights Act) claim and would not suffer irreparable harm absent the requested mandatory preliminary injunction,” he wrote.
Dever also cited the fact that absentee ballots are in the mail, the voting process has begun, and that an injunction would result in “voter confusion and chaos.” Any changes to the redistricting plan at this point would come with “extraordinary cost, confusion and hardship,” he wrote.
The State Board of Elections formerly filed a possible timeline for a remedial map-making process, saying that they would require 50 days to allow candidates to file and ballots to be prepared and mailed. As voting has already begun, if Dever had issued an injunction the elections in impacted districts would have needed to be moved to May 14 or later, according to the board’s timeline.
The Senate districts at issue in the suit, District 1 and 2, will not hold primaries on March 5 along with the rest of the state, as both Democrat and Republican candidates ran uncontested. The maps will likely be used in the Nov. 5 general election, although the case may still go to trial.
North Carolina Republicans currently hold a veto-proof majority in both the state House and Senate — by one vote. If the plaintiffs were able to get the maps redrawn, that additional vote could make it more difficult for the Republican-majority House and Senate to veto a Democratic governor. In 2023, the supermajority overrode a record number of Democrat Governor Roy Cooper’s vetoes.
Dever said he did not see a compelling justification to disrupt the election process and that his court “declines to sow chaos and voter confusion in North Carolina given that the 2024 Senate elections are underway.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs and the defendants have been asked to agree on a proposed schedule. Without court intervention, the Senate maps that have been labeled as gerrymandered will be in effect for the Nov. 5 election.
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