In news that’s surprising to absolutely no one, the last-minute redistricting efforts by several southern states have caused confusion among both candidates and voters.
According to the Hill, Alabama voters are among those who are understandably confused about what the redistricting effort means for their vote. This isn’t terribly surprising, considering how last-minute Alabama’s redistricting effort has been. After the Supreme Court gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Alabama moved to revive a map that was previously found to be racially gerrymandered. The state legislature passed a bill allowing Gov. Kay Ivey to delay primary elections in districts that would be impacted by the redistricting effort.
Alabama’s redistricting effort hasn’t gone smoothly, as a panel of federal judges ruled that the map is still a blatant racial gerrymander, even under the weakened Voting Rights Act. Alabama’s attorney general intends to bring the map before the Supreme Court, which only three years ago ruled that the map was a racial gerrymander. Let’s see if they keep that same energy.
The redistricting efforts in Alabama have caused several candidates to reorient their campaigns and introduce themselves to voters in new districts.
“As a person that’s new to politics, this is my first campaign I’ve ever, ever been in,” Austin Sidwell, a Republican candidate running for Alabama’s Mobile-based 1st Congressional District, told the Hill. “I don’t think there’s been very many that have seen the district and the candidate list changed three times throughout the campaign — really in about a three-week period.”
What’s absurd about Alabama’s elections is that the map hasn’t been approved, so candidates and voters are essentially in limbo while they wait to see the outcome.
Louisiana, the state responsible for the Voting Rights Act being gutted, had one of the more egregious responses to the ruling. Early voting was already underway in the state’s primaries when the ruling was announced. That didn’t matter to Gov. Jeff Landry, who abruptly canceled the elections so new maps could be drawn. This resulted in 40,000 votes being tossed out, with voters expressing feelings of disenfranchisement and confusion as to why their votes didn’t count. The state passed a new map last month, eliminating one of Louisiana’s majority-Black districts.
These last-minute redistricting efforts have left voters in both states unsure which district they’re now in and who’s running to represent them. This confusion is entirely predictable, as several state election officials spoke out about the logistical nightmare that would ensue if districts were redrawn as primaries were underway. In fact, this voter confusion is why the Supreme Court blocked a lower court’s ruling last year that Texas engaged in a racial gerrymander through its redistricting effort.
According to the Supreme Court, blocking a map six months before an election is to take place causes far more confusion than canceling primaries, throwing out thousands of votes, just to draw a new, more racist map. Got it.
There’s been similar confusion and outrage among voters in Tennessee after the state legislature hastily moved to eliminate the state’s only majority-Black district. This greatly impacted Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson’s (D) congressional campaign, as he resides in the state’s new 5th Congressional District but is running for the newly drawn 9th Congressional District. While Pearson told the Hill that the redistricting effort has caused some degree of confusion, it also had the unintentional effect of firing up voters.
“The question that we are asked by the treacherous actions of the Republicans in Tennessee and across the South is, will this be enough to break us and make us quit?” Pearson told the Hill. “And our answer is a resounding no.”
SEE ALSO:
Former NBA Star Derrick Coleman Rejects Alabama Honors Over Redistricting
Alabama County Must Redraw Racially Gerrymandered Maps
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