Redistricting: Nonpartisan group needed to draw district boundaries

A federal court has ruled that the Legislature must redraw North Carolina's legislative districts by the spring and hold new elections by the end of next year.

Some of the districts constitute racial gerrymandering, the judges said, and are therefore illegal.

Lawmakers are appealing the ruling, with Republican leaders saying that voters have just had their say at the polls and that the court's decision ignores the will of the people.

We have said it before, and we will say it again -- the practice of drawing district lines with race in mind was set in place 30 years ago by Democrats, and now that that Republicans have the edge, the Democrats want to undo it. If the shoe was on the other foot, Republicans would be trying to redraw the Democrats' district lines.

Gerrymandered district boundaries have come to mean nothing to the average voter because they are contorted so badly that most people have no idea what district they are in.

The only real solution is to have a nonpartisan group draw the lines. It can be done, it has been proved. A panel of former judges has recently drawn a map that contained more compact congressional districts as an example.

Until that day comes, however, expect district lines to meander all over the map and the fight over district boundaries to continue.

Published in Editorials on November 30, 2016 9:53 AM