Dems Win More Votes; Reps Win More Seats

[littlemissmartypants]

Dems Win More Votes; Reps Win More Seats
By JASON DEBRUYN • NOV 9, 2018

North Carolina Republicans won majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly. But Democrats won more total votes.

In Congressional races, the divide was more stark than at the state level. Despite winning fewer than half of the total votes cast, Republicans won 10 of North Carolina's 13 Congressional seats.

Critics have blamed gerrymandered districts for the lopsided outcome. At the Congressional level, at least, these critics have a point. A series of federal court rulings found that Congressional districts had been illegally gerrymandered. First they were found to be racially gerrymandered, and were subsequently redrawn. Federal courts found those new maps to be a partisan gerrymander, specifically to favor Republicans. That ruling has been appealed, but the Supreme Court has not yet agreed to hear it. Although the judges ruled against Republicans, they also ruled that there was not enough time to redraw the maps for the 2018 mid-term election.

Maps for the North Carolina General Assembly were also struck down by federal courts as they were also deemed to be racially gerrymandered. Critics had argued it was those gerrymandered maps that gave Republicans a veto-proof majority in the House and Senate. The General Assembly district maps were redrawn by a federal court, and this was the first election under the new maps. A state court, however, recently found that four districts in Wake County were unnecessarily drawn in the redistricting process and violate the state consitution's prohibition on mid-decade redistricting. The court ordered those districts to be redrawn in the next legislative session for districts to be used in the 2020 election.

Gerrymandering uses the concepts of packing and cracking to shape election results. In North Carolina, the Republican led General Assembly drew districts that packed likely Democratic voters into a few districts, while spreading likely Republican voters over many districts. The effect is that Democrats won fewer races, but by larger margins, while Republicans won more races by slim margins.

Snip...
More at the link.
http://www.wunc.org/post/dems-win-more-votes-reps-win-more-seats#stream/0

♡ lmsp

[marble falls]

1. Classic example of how gerrymandering works.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. You're right about that, marble falls.

We (the dems) where I live, worked our buns off, phone banking, postcard writing, door knocking, fund raising. I thought we really had a chance for change. Not one dem in my county won. One dem won in the next county over by less than 100 votes. We did have success unseating several republican school board members there to result in a dem majority, so that's good.

We'll be ready next time though because we got very close and we are just getting warmed up.

Insert :raisedfist: emoji here.

♡ lmsp

[marble falls]

7. We stopped doing what they've gotten very good at: taking lower offices that allows them ...

to get to know people. The GOP used local offices to see who were responded to in elections and moved them up. It started with Reagan and it got us Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay and that ilk that pulled off the gerrymandering we are finally beating 20 years later.

[Doreen]

3. Now that there are more Dems in office is there going to

be a better chance the next election cycle to be less gerrymandering? Just wondering.

[littlemissmartypants]

6. Their supposed to redraw the districts.

But who knows how and when that'll happen. I wish I did.

[Doreen]

8. I am hoping if they do that that they do not play tit for tat and make it super hard for

Republicans to vote. I know the Republicans do that to the Democrats but do we need to play the same crappy game. I think it should be left equal. I myself would work very hard so that EVERYONE ( despite party ) could vote. Isn't that the way it is "supposed" to be?

[Blue_playwright]

4. That is a sign something is really wrong.

In Congressional races, the divide was more stark than at the state level. Despite winning fewer than half of the total votes cast, Republicans won 10 of North Carolina's 13 Congressional seats.

I understand a small margin with a handful of wins but they got less than 50% of the vote with about 80% victories? That’s wrong. So wrong.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. It really is Blue_playwright.

Especially, as hard as we were all working. It really took the wind out of my sails when I first saw the results. I was so hopeful.