NC Legislators Adopt Nonpartisan Redistricting Criteria Forbidding “Partisan Considerations and Election Results Data”

Sen. Daniel: “It’s time to put the last 30 years of litigation behind us and begin a new era of nonpartisan map drawing.”

Raleigh, N.C. — Legislators on North Carolina’s Senate and House redistricting committees today formally adopted nonpartisan mapmaking criteria that forbids “partisan considerations and election results.”

Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Burke), who co-chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee, said, “North Carolina has been the epicenter of redistricting lawsuits for decades. It’s time to put the last 30 years of litigation behind us and begin a new era of nonpartisan map drawing.”

The criteria adopted by the committee largely mirrors the criteria used during the successful 2019 redistricting effort. North Carolina Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue (D-Wake) praised the maps produced using the 2019 criteria as “fair and nonpartisan.”

The nonpartisan criterion adopted by the redistricting committees reads as follows: “Election Data. Partisan considerations and election results data shall not be used in the drawing of districts in the 2021 Congressional, House and Senate plans.”

The full adopted criteria will be available on the legislature’s website this afternoon after minor adjustments are made to reflect changes adopted during this morning’s committee hearing.