RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A judge refused Friday to prevent the use of two North Carolina Senate districts drawn by Republican legislators starting with the 2024 elections and to order them replaced with boundaries that lawsuit plaintiffs argue would more likely ensure Black voters can elect a preferred candidate in one of them.
U.S. District Judge James Dever denied a preliminary injunction requested by two Black residents who sued over the Senate districts in November, alleging racial bias. They contend GOP legislative leaders likely violated the federal Voting Rights Act by fashioning the two districts so that Black voters in northeastern counties were split between the two, diluting their voting strength.
The plaintiffs proposed remedial districts, one of which would have a Black voting age population of nearly 50% or slightly above it, depending on the counting method. The Black voting age populations in each of the districts enacted by the General Assembly approach 30%.
Dever, who was nominated to the federal bench by President George W. Bush and once a redistricting lawyer, wrote that there wasn’t evidence presented to him or the General Assembly showing a majority-Black state Senate district was required in the region.
And a principle that courts should not change election rules close to an election applies here because activity for the March 5 primaries is underway, Dever wrote. While there are no primaries for the seats for the 1st and 2nd Senate Districts being challenged, attorneys for the GOP legislators have argued that granting an injunction could require many other districts — some with primaries — to be redrawn.
“The court declines plaintiffs’ invitation to issue the requested extraordinary, mandatory preliminary injunction and thereby inflict voter confusion and chaos on the 2024 Senate elections in North Carolina,” Dever wrote in a 69-page order.
Thorough their lawyers, plaintiffs Rodney Pierce of…
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