Redistricting: NC's political maps are on trial. Here are 5 key takeaways from the testimony so far.

NC’s political maps are on trial. Here are 5 key takeaways from the testimony so far. BY WILL DORAN UPDATED JANUARY 05, 2022 7:33 PM

RALEIGH North Carolina’s new political districts are so skewed toward Republicans that they’re nearly off the charts, multiple expert witnesses testified during this week’s trial in a high-profile gerrymandering lawsuit. The Republican-led legislature drew the maps late last year and is now defending them in court. On the other side are liberal challengers who want the maps tossed out and ruled unconstitutional due to partisan gerrymandering. A math professor from Carnegie Mellon University working for the challengers, Wesley Pegden, used a computer algorithm to draw a massive set of possible political districts for North Carolina. He testified that the legislature’s congressional map is more biased in favor of Republicans than 99.99% of the billions of maps he created. “The enacted map is an extreme outlier,” he said. Pegden was one of half a dozen math and political science professors who all came to similar conclusions for the challengers, about the congressional map as well as the map for the state legislature, all using different ways of testing them. They spent Monday and Tuesday explaining their work to the judges hearing the case.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, attorneys and experts for the legislature made their own case in defense of the maps. They have not argued that it’s incorrect to say the maps are skewed to the right. Instead they’ve said it makes sense, since Democrats tend to live in cities while Republicans tend to be more spread out in rural areas, which they say gives Republicans a built-in geographic advantage. Most importantly, however, the legislature’s case hinges on the legal argument that there’s nothing unconstitutional about partisan gerrymandering. “North Carolina gives a great deal of discretion to the legislature, compared to other states,” said Andy Taylor, an N.C. State University political scientist who testified on behalf of the legislature.

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1. THE TOP 0.01 PERCENT?
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2. RACE COULD BE A CONSIDERATION
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3. GOP SUPERMAJORITY A KEY FOCUS
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4. A VAGUE STATE CONSTITUTION
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5. THE POLITICS OF THE JUDGES
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Complete article (no paywall) at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article257040347.html#storylink=cpy

There is supposed to be a ruling by January the 11th, next Tuesday.

❤pants