North Carolina's GOP Tries Its Hardest to Keep People Out of Redistricting Meetings

North Carolina’s Republican-controlled state legislature clearly has no intention of correcting its “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.” The state’s GOP lawmakers made their intention abundantly clear when they tasked Tom Hofeller, the consultant who drew North Carolina’s unconstitutional voting districts in 2011, to redraw the districts.

Lawmakers released its proposed new voting district map on Monday. Surprise: the new map still gives the GOP an advantage.

On Tuesday, the only day voters were given, North Carolina citizens were allowed to express their concern about the redrawn map at seven locations across the state. True to form, the state legislature made it has difficult as possible for anyone to actually attend these meetings.

Inaccessible doesn’t even begin to describe the Tuesday night’s meetings. They were scheduled to begin at 4 PM and end at 6:30 PM, a wildly inconvenient time for anyone who has to, I don’t know, work.

Even if concerned citizens were able to attend the meetings, the GOP booked rooms whose size was clearly picked for a reason. In Charlotte, the state’s biggest city, lawmakers selected a room with a 37 person occupancy limit.

Eventually, the Fire Marshall wouldn’t allow more people to enter Charlotte’s meeting. Who could have seen that coming…?

By scheduling a two and half hour window, on a Tuesday evening, in disproportionately small rooms, the GOP almost insured that voters wouldn’t be able to contest the redrawn districts.

No worries, though, says the state legislature. There’s a comment form that I’m sure lawmakers won’t consult, for voters who couldn’t make one of Tuesday night’s meetings.