RALEIGH, N.C. (CN) —North Carolina voters sued the state Board of Elections and General Assembly leaders Wednesday over their right to fair, frequent and free elections.
The voters, represented in part by former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, say that they are the first in state history to challenge election districts over violating voters’ constitutional right to fair elections.
"It all comes down to this question: Do North Carolina voters have a right to fair elections under our state constitution?" Orr said in a statement. "If the answer to that question is 'yes,' then any time politicians of either party apportion voters to predetermine winners and losers, it’s a clear violation of North Carolinians' state constitutional rights.”
The 11 plaintiffs, who are registered voters in districts across the state, filed the suit in Wake County Superior Court Wednesday. Among them are a former North Carolina senator, Allen Wellons, and Tom Ross, the former president of the University of North Carolina.
“If the citizens of North Carolina are guaranteed by their State Constitution the right to ‘frequent’ and ‘free’ elections, then surely the Constitution guarantees them the right to ‘fair’ elections,” the voters say. “After all, what good are ‘frequent’ elections if those elections are not ‘fair?’ Likewise, what good are ‘free’ elections if those elections are not ‘fair?’”
The plaintiffs say the North Carolina Constitution guarantees them the right to frequent and free elections — a right which they say was violated by Republicans aggregating voters to win elections.
“Without ‘fair’ elections, the framework of our government would rest not on principle and the will of the people, but instead, on partisan politics, exercised not by political parties or particular entities, but by the heavy hand of government itself, in this case the General Assembly," the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint. "By intentionally manipulating the electoral odds and stacking the electorate to give an unfair electoral advantage to a particular political party and its candidates in selected districts, the General Assembly has attempted to preordain the outcome of elections in certain districts as set out below.”
The plaintiffs say that the new Congressional and state House and Senate maps factor in party registration, race, ethnicity and voting tendencies to give Republicans an unfair advantage in elections in certain districts.
As an example, the voters compare the number of voters in Congressional District 6 who voted for Trump and Biden in the 2020 election, to the voting patterns of voters in the redrawn district in 2024. The new voting districts shifted more Republican voters into District 6. The plaintiffs say the district went from competitive to guaranteeing a win for Republicans.
“Plaintiffs, individually, and on behalf of all the citizens of North Carolina contend that they are guaranteed 'fair' elections or else the other constitutional guarantees are of little or no value and that the elections in specific districts as set forth in the Complaint violated their constitutional right to fair elections,” the plaintiffs wrote on website made to track the progress of the case. “The right to 'fair' elections is an unenumerated right reserved by the people and fundamental to the very concept of elections and the underpinnings of democracy.”
In a statement, Orr added, “They stuffed election districts with selected voters to virtually ensure a preordained election outcome, and in doing so, they violated the rights of North Carolina voters.”
Three other lawsuits have been filed over the October 2023 maps, all claiming that gerrymandering racially dilutes votes. Recently, a judge decided that he would allow elections with a disputed Senate map to continue, writing that he doubted the plaintiffs would be able to prove that the Voting Rights Act requires the state to create a majority-Black Senate district. This suit is the first to address the new election maps without citing violations of the Voting Rights Act.
North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore and the North Carolina Board of Elections, defendants in the case, did not immediately return a request for comment.
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