Thread by @lekhashupeck

The bill they're talking about here, #H140, that is starting to lose Democratic support, is the same one that the legislative defendants just cited Art Pope as having endorsed when offering him as a gerrymandering referee.

https://twitter.com/carlibrosseau/status/1170302970807894017

If you don't know who Art Pope is, he's the North Carolina Republican mega-donor behind the GOP REDMAP effort that led to maps that have been found to be both partisan *and* racially gerrymandered by multiple courts.

https://twitter.com/everyvoicenc/status/1170149641469513728?s=21

Now, I wouldn't trust any redistricting reform bill that Art Pope endorsed. As the Common Cause trial showed, #NCGA Republican leadership has acted in bad faith at every turn on this issue. Even now in offering Pope as "referee" they're basically trolling the court.

But besides the inherent suspicion you should have of any bill Pope has endorsed and #NCGA leadership approves of, many people have already given a number of substantive critiques of the bill's provisions, provisions which could actually leave us *worse off* than we are now.

One of these is that it would move the map drawing power to the Legislative Services Office, which might be ok, if the person leading that office weren't a political appointee of that same #NCGA GOP leadership. And he isn't shy about seeming partisan tinyurl.com/yx9ruokn

The even more dangerous part is that the LSO doesn't have the same requirements for transparency that the legislature does. That means less public access to the decision making process, and less evidence if future litigation is necessary, making it harder to fight bad maps.

So basically, GOP leadership could work with their handpicked LSO to draw gerrymandered maps behind the scenes in exactly the same way they have in the past, but now there are no public deliberations we can point to when we're trying to show how the process has been skewed.

#H140 also says "No district shall be drawn... for the purpose of augmenting or diluting the voting strength of a language or racial minority group" This also might sound good! But it will probably hurt minority, and especially black, voters in NC and contravene the VRA.

VRA districts, as they're often termed, are meant to allow minorities the power to elect the candidate of their choice. This often means intentionally drawing a district with a certain percentage of minority population.
publicmapping.org/what-is-redist…

This idea has been badly abused by the NCGOP since 2010, using it as an excuse to pack black voters into as few districts as possible and reduce their voting power.

These racial gerrymanders have been overturned by federal courts repeatedly because they don't actually serve the goals of the VRA, which isn't to pack black voters, but to create districts where minority voters can have an impact.

For this reason the provision in #H140 prohibiting drawing districts for the purpose of "augmenting... the voting strength of a language or racial minority group" could prevent drawing districts whose goal is to increase minority voting power, as the VRA requires.

Sadly, I'm not finished with the ways this bill could hurt minority voters. #H140 would also strike language in the North Carolina State Constitution that says each state Senator and Representative "shall represent, as nearly as may be, an equal number of inhabitants"

This clearly means the total population of the state is the basis on which districts are drawn. #H140 replaces "inhabitants" with simply "population." This seems *very* dangerous to me, because who gets to define what population is used?

Language like this - in the state von of all things!!! - could open up districts to being drawn on the basis of something like Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP).

Remember the citizenship question they wanted to put on the Census? That, according to the Hofeller docs, they wanted to do that specifically to advantage "Republicans and non-Hispanic whites"? This is what they wanted to use it for.

And don't think that just because it's not on the Census that they can't still find other estimates from the federal government to use. They want CVAP because it completely excludes all the younger people of color from consideration.

It would effectively turn back time by a decade or more when it comes to the population that is considered when drawing districts. Places with large minority, younger populations would be hugely disenfranchised. That's what #H140 opens us up to. No wonder Art Pope likes it.

von -> constitution

I'm not even finished with the disturbing things in #H140 - another major one is the supposed "Redistricting Commission" it institutes. Despite the name, the Commission doesn't draw the maps (remember that power is with a highly partisan official).

It doesn't actually advise on the drawing of maps (although the LSO can ask it to - fat chance I say).

It's not a citizen's commission since the members are chosen by the Dem and GOP party leaders.

So what does it do?

The so-called "Temporary Redistricting Advisory Commission"'s main duty is to hold three (only three!) public hearings *after* the LSO has drawn it's map, and to produce a report summarizing what was said or submitted at them -

A report that I can only assume the LSO will swiftly deposit into the metaphorical circular file because they don't actually have to take anything it says into account (why would they, especially considering that it's produced *after* they draw the maps)

Labeling this powerless body a "redistricting commission" is a sham that I hope no one falls for.

There are still a few other things I have a problem with in #H140

Like giving the NCGA the constitutional power to redistrict local offices like school boards and city councils (not that they haven't already done this - but enshrining it in our constitution for all time seems like a bad idea)

It would also put the Stephenson v. Bartlett interpretation of the whole county provision into the constitution giving us no opportunity to change it in future (@districks does a great job of explaining whole county / county groupings here) blog.districks.com/2019/09/04/an-…

So basically, #H140 is bad news all over (but you knew that the second Art Pope endorsed it, right?) but I do want to be charitable to some of the people who signed on.

This stuff is complicated, and not obvious - there's a lot of it I didn't pick up on before having it explained to me by people like @EveryVoiceNC and others. And we all want real reform that will end the gerrymandering and non-stop litigation that has torn our state apart.

So believe me, I understand the impulse to sign on to anything that seems like it might resolve this problem and make things better - especially when its deficiencies aren't obvious to everyone.

However, I hope this thread has shown how #H140 could actually make things *worse* than the current status quo by reducing transparency and enabling partisan control while making us *feel* like we've done something good.

People like Art Pope want to prey upon our good impulses and turn them against us by laying on the deception, bad faith claims, and dirty tricks, just like we've seen in past gerrymandering efforts. Don't be fooled.

If a "bipartisan compromise" brings people like Pope, who have been actively working to undermine #FairMaps and access to the vote, on board, ask yourself why that might be, and what they think they have to gain.