On July 31, a 3-judge U.S. District Court ruled that the North Carolina need not hold a special election in 2017 for state legislative seats. But it said the legislature must pass a redistricting legislative plan by September 1, for the 2018 election. This is all due to an earlier U.S. Supreme Court ruling, upholding a lower court ruling, that the current legislative districts are an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Covington v State of North Carolina, m.d., 1:15cv-399.
The plaintiffs had urged the court to redraw new districts now and then force the state to use those new districts in a special election held this year.
For the 2018 election only, the ruling suspends the North Carolina law that says candidates for the legislature must have lived in their district for one year. They will only need to live in their district when they file for office.
All North Carolina legislators, Senators and Representatives alike, have two-year terms. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
Math morons at work — in ALL the 1964-2017 gerrymander cases—
ALL GERRYMANDERS — ALL THE TIME —
1/2 OR LESS VOTES X 1/2 GERRYMANDER AREAS = 1/4 OR LESS CONTROL = OLIGARCHY.
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PR
The federal district court had ordered special elections. As part of their appeal of the underlying case, the legislature had sought a stay, which the SCOTUS granted. While the SCOTUS had affirmed the opinion of the court, they vacated the order for special election, and strongly suggested that the district court had not followed precedents in ordering such an extraordinary solution that would require truncating the terms of representatives elected to a two-year term (half of the SCOTUS opinion dealt with the issue of the special election).
The plaintiffs did not bother to file suit until 2015, after two elections had already been held, and court did not make its ruling until August 2016, two months before the general election. In June, the court tried to push the legislature, and the legislature had to explain to the judges that a SCOTUS opinion is not official until a certified opinion is issued (the SCOTUS has apparently not mastered Twitter #wigsandquillpens).
The district court could tell they weren’t going to be able to order special elections, especially they would be more or less contemporaneous with the primary. So they decided to be pissy and suggest that there was something wrong with seeking a stay of an opinion that was later vacated, and to push the legislature to act a little faster. The redistricting committees have already begun meeting, and legislature has scheduled special sessions for August and September.