Congressional maps: North Carolina Senate map passes, goes to NC House for consideration

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Earlier in February, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down redrawn legislative and congressional maps as unconstitutional gerrymanders.

It was found the lines were illegally stacked to give Republicans an advantage. Now, lawmakers have until Friday to submit their redrawn maps.

Related: NC Supreme Court rules legislative and congressional maps as unconstitutional gerrymanders

The North Carolina Senate map just passed. It will go to the NC House, and if the House passes this senate map, it will go to the NC trial court.

WBTV talked to Catawba College Political Science Professor Dr. Michael Bitzer who said these maps determine which districts voters will be in and potentially who will be elected from these districts.

All these districts have a certain number of North Carolina citizens and people who want to be lawmakers. Bitzer thinks these new maps reflect a different version from what we saw in the original maps.

Related: North Carolina Supreme Court delays state primary elections until May 2022 due to gerrymandering allegations

“These maps are generally tending to be much more partisan neutral in terms of the dynamics of how many Republicans and how many Democrats could be elected to the US House, to the NC State House to the state Senate. So I think the dynamics at what I’ve been looking at these maps is that the electoral process, the electoral performance, within these maps are much more balanced,” Bitzer said.

Redistricting plans have to be submitted Friday. After that, the trial court will have to finalize the maps by Feb. 23.

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