(The Center Square) – Two voters lacked standing and, additionally, failed to show how Blacks were weakened by maps for the North Carolina Senate, a federal judge has ruled.
“Plaintiffs ignore the progress that North Carolina has made over the past 60 years and seek to use Section 2 to sort voters by race in order to squeeze one more Democratic Senate district into the map,” wrote Judge James Dever of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The ruling in Rodney D. Pierce and Moses Matthews v. The North Carolina State Board of Elections, et al. says racial gerrymandering did not happen in the northeastern part of the state for a North Carolina Senate map. Moses Matthews and Rodney Pierce, the latter now a member of the House of Representatives, did not live in the district, Dever said, nor did their evidence show voting strength of Blacks losing strength because of the map.
“This case does not involve the General Assembly engaging in race-based districting or the odious practice of sorting voters based on race,” Dever wrote in part over 126 pages. “Black voters in northeast North Carolina and throughout North Carolina have elected candidates of their choice (both white and Black) with remarkable frequency and success for decades.”
Dever cited example after example of Blacks winning where the areas represented have Black voting-age populations below 50%. His named spots included Sen. Sydney Batch (less than 20%) in Wake County and Rep. Robert Reives (11.6%) in Chatham and Randolph counties, the latter having won five terms.
Even in Congress, Dever pointed out, the northeastern part of the state has had a Black representative since 1992 – including Rep. Don Davis today in 2024’s only U.S. House race with both candidates less than 10% apart.
“Crossover voting occurs throughout North Carolina up and down the ballot,” Dever wrote.
