The Supreme Court sent North Carolina’s legislative and Congressional districts back the State Supreme Court for review. Both sides are jockeying for position. Democrats say the districts are about to be redrawn. Republicans claim that the districts will ultimately be upheld. Regardless, of which side eventually wins, the voters have already lost.
North Carolina districts have spent most of every decade since 1990 under a cloud of uncertainty. Democrats gerrymandered districts and Republicans contested them. Now that Republicans are in control, they are following the Democrats’ lead with even more egregious redistricting maps. It’s time to stop the cycle.
Republicans came to power claiming that they were different. They were going to provide more open and honest government and their free-market ideology would add efficiency to government through increased competition. Now, the one place we should really be competitive–elections–we’re not.
Our electoral system could certainly use some fixes but instead of focusing on the problems, the GOP manufactured voter fraud to justify making voting more difficult. They should act as real reformers and set up an independent redistricting commission so this decade becomes the last that we waste time and money arguing about the validity of districts in court.
The GOP should also fix our run-off system. Every election year, we waste a bunch of money holding second primary elections in the middle of summer when few people participate. We should either eliminate run-offs altogether or make them quickly follow the first primary while voters are still somewhat engaged. The only people who really benefit from the current system are the political consultants who get paid for an additional election where nobody shows up.
Republicans have an opportunity to make some electoral changes that benefit all North Carolinians instead of just their party. Making the governor and lieutenant governor run as a ticket is a good move. Now, they should end the cycle of extreme gerrymandering that leads to drawn out court battles and uncertainty. And they should fix the run-off system either by scrapping second primaries or scheduling them more closely to the initial primary election.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
What about using instant runoff/ranked-choice voting as a way to “fix the runoff system” and eliminate second primaries.
But doing all those things would require the GOP to put aside partisanship, ideology, the instinct for self-preservation, and their lust for continuing power & control. It would also require that they actually govern and reform short-sighted state practices and policies, and that they champion fairness and what is in the common “best interest” of all NC citizens. Unfortunately, they have not shown any interest in doing any of these things since 2010…….