North Carolinians will have a chance to weigh in on new legislative district maps on Friday.

A public input session is scheduled for Friday morning at the North Carolina General Assembly as lawmakers are redrawing the state’s electoral map after a court order.

The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that some districts in North Carolina’s legislative map were unconstitutional due to racial gerrymandering – drawing lines in an attempt to dilute the impact of minority voters.

House Representative David Lewis, who is leading the redrawing efforts in the House said in a statement announcing Friday’s session that lawmakers would comply with the court order.

“While we had originally planned to set aside additional time to receive comments from North Carolinians and hold a statewide public hearing on criteria across the state, we have said all along that we will comply with the federal court’s order. Moving forward this process over the next week will help us comply with the court’s deadline.”

Legislators had been asking to have until mid-November to redraw the legislative maps. As the federal court issued the recent order, it criticized the pace with which the General Assembly has acted on redrawing the maps so far.

A three-judge panel set a September 1 deadline for lawmakers to redraw the maps, although they said that could be extended to September 15 if lawmakers make enough progress on new boundaries in the next few weeks.

When issuing the order to redraw the districts, the judges announced that they would not be requiring the state to hold special elections before the next legislative session, which Democrats had been hoping for.

The public hearing is set to get underway at 10:30 Friday morning. For those who cannot make Friday’s meeting, comments can be submitted online or mailed to the following address:

Redistricting
300 N. Salisbury St., Suite 545
Raleigh, North Carolina 27603-5925

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