WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - A U.S. federal court on Tuesday set a March 15 deadline for North Carolina state lawmakers to redraw legislative districts found to be racially “gerrymandered,” and ordered a new round of elections by next November for the 28 seats at stake. Moreover, state lawmakers elected to any of the disputed General Assembly seats in 2016 will serve for just one year, instead of the normal two, the court ruled, a limit set for those elected next fall as well. The same three-judge panel last summer said 28 of the General Assembly’s 170 districts were illegal racial gerrymanders, but decided it was too late in the election cycle to redraw new maps and conduct elections under them this month. Attorneys representing legislative mapmakers wanted until next July to redraw boundaries and hold elections at the next usual election date in November 2018. Lawyers for the voters who successfully sued to overturn 19 House and nine Senate districts wanted new maps in place in late January and said it wasn’t right for voters to have to wait another two years to cast ballots under lawful maps. “While special elections have costs, those costs pale in comparison to the injury caused by allowing citizens to continue to be represented by legislators elected pursuant to a racial gerrymander,” the judges wrote Tuesday, adding that despite concerns about lower voter turnout, “a special election in the fall of 2017 is an appropriate remedy.”

Republican lawmakers who helped draw the original maps in 2011 said Tuesday night that they’ll appeal the decision, which they called “politically motivated” and in blatant disregard of the state constitution’s directive that House and Senate members are elected to serve two-year terms. The ruling is a “politically motivated” abuse of judicial authority, said state Senator Bob Rucho and Representative David Lewis, the Republican chairmen of the House and Senate redistricting committees. Anita Earls, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers praised the ruling. “A special election in the affected districts in 2017 is the best way to protect the rights of all North Carolinians,” she said. All 170 districts will be on the ballot. North Carolina has already appealed the August ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to act. Circuit Judge Jim Wynn and District Judges Catherine Eagles and Thomas Schroeder — unanimously declared that GOP legislators had failed to justify creating so many districts with Black voting-age populations above 50 percent. The order says North Carolina will hold a primary election for the General Assembly in late August or early September and the general election in early November 2017, with dates set by the legislature. Last year, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice challenged North Carolina’s latest political maps, saying legislative district lines were drawn in 2011 so as to dilute the state’s black vote and give Republicans an advantage.
A federal judge orders the state of North Carolina to redraw its legislative districts citing gerrymandering.