The map will likely add a Black — and Democratic — member to the delegation.
A federal court has picked Alabama’s new congressional map, which will likely result in an additional Black — and Democratic — member in the delegation.
The new map came after the same panel of federal judges twice found that lines drawn by the GOP-dominated Legislature likely violated the Voting Rights Act by weakening the power of Black voters. The new lines will be used for at least the 2024 elections, the state’s Republican secretary of state said on Thursday, though Alabama Republicans have vowed to fight them for future cycles.
The map gives greater electoral power to Black residents, who make up about one-quarter of the state’s population. And it will very likely mean Republicans lose one seat in their thin majority, imperiling their already tenuous hold on the lower chamber even before battleground districts come into play.
This is good news. Does Alabama have some way to wriggle out of it though? I feel like something similar has happened in other states and then they get to claim it’s too close to the election or something. Or in some cases just don’t do it. But I admittedly don’t know the differences between state and federal cases in those other ones so maybe this is different?
They already got away with using the map that was unconstitutional because it was too close to the 2022 election! This takes entirely too long to remedy, and there’s no making up for the consequences of gerrymandering since no one goes back to redo elections.