Eschewing partisan politics in favor or fairness was what many recently asked of North Carolina lawmakers when they soon start resetting the state's voting districts.
“The great mystery of every election is what my congressional district will look like,” said Jay Kennett, who lives near downtown Burlington. “It changes every single time.”
Kennett spoke near the end of a long public hearing on North Carolina’s process for drawing new congressional and state legislative districts at Alamance Community College in Graham on Thursday. He ranked among about 30 other speakers, many of whom hit the same theme.
“Please stop the political gerrymandering,” said Paul Walker, a retired agricultural agent in Alamance County. "I have lived here 40 years I saw both parties do it, and then the resulting controversy and lawsuits is just not pleasant to watch.”
All states must redraw their legislative districts following the 2020 Census, but, like Kennett said, North Carolina’s districts never stopped changing after the 2011 redistricting process as courts repeatedly rejected maps from the Republican-led legislature.
While it’s not required, the North Carolina General Assembly Joint Redistricting Committee is holding 13 public hearings across the state on the redistricting process this month before the legislature draws new maps. Thursday’s hearing at ACC was number seven.
At the front of the over-capacity auditorium were seven of the state lawmakers who will be voting on those maps and possibly running in those districts next year. Five of them were members of the House and Senate redistricting committees, mostly from nearby Guilford and Rockingham counties. Two, Sen. Amy Galey and Rep. Ricky Hurtado, are part of Alamance County’s legislative delegation.
Most speakers asked legislators to draw “compact” districts that keep people in the same areas in the same districts instead of using complex, sprawling shapes to minimize the impact of Democrats and minority voters.
“Do not dilute the voting power of Blacks and other communities of color,” said east Burlington resident Irving Zavaleta-Jimenez.
Some speakers, like Phyllis Demko, represented organizations – in her case the League of Women Voters of North Carolina. She criticized the committee for holding so few hearings, having them in the afternoons when many working people can’t come and doing little to publicize them.
“It would seem from all these elements,” Demko said, “that you are not really interested in what the public has to say.”
Many speakers wanted a chance to check lawmakers' work, asking for more hearings after the legislature drafts the maps but before it votes on them.
“Let’s put the maps out early and let everybody see those maps,” said Hillsborough resident John Hartwell. “Let everybody have some faith again in American Government.”
Then others said Democrats didn’t complain about gerrymandering before losing the state legislature in 2010.
“A lot of people here are talking about making sure that things are fair and not gerrymandered,” said Peter Boykin. “If it was the opposite side then they wouldn’t be saying the same thing.”
And there were a handful of people asking legislators to hand the job of redistricting over to an independent, non-partisan redistricting commission as some other states have.
But Peter O’Connell, a Guilford County Republican voter, said that was just another way for Democrats to get leverage they couldn’t get at the ballot box, and legislators should draw their districts as they always have.
“The people already have spoken,” O’Connell said. “They’ve elected their chosen representatives, including all of you, and I ask you to please do the job that you were elected to do.”
Isaac Groves is the Alamance County government watchdog reporter for the Times-News and the USA Today Network. Call or text 919-998-8039 with tips and comments or follow him on Twitter @TNIGroves.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Voters at NC redistricting forum ask legislators to end gerrymandering