Reminder: Maps Were Drawn by Democratic Mapmaker, Amended Only by Dem Legislators, and Passed with Majority-Dem Support

For second time in 10 years, Republicans won majorities under maps drawn by Democrats

Raleigh, N.C. — Republicans again won a majority in the state senate under maps drawn by Democrats.

Here’s a quick refresher on how the current maps came to be.

The Democratic Party hired University of Michigan professor Dr. Jowei Chen to produce thousands of simulated maps as part of a lawsuit.

One of the maps produced by the Democratic Party’s mapmaker, Dr. Chen, was chosen at random by a lottery ball machine.

The only changes to the randomly-selected map drawn by the Democratic Party’s mapmaker, Dr. Chen, were made by Democratic legislators.

Here are quotes from Democratic lawmakers about the current maps, which a majority of Democratic senators voted to support:

• “I feel as someone who has been a frequent critic of redistricting, I’m duty-bound to acknowledge these are the fairest maps and this was the fairest process to occur in NC in my lifetime.” — Sen. Jeff Jackson (D-Mecklenburg)
• “I constantly went to speak to Senator Berger about this process being open, and he assured me it would be an open and transparent process like the court said it would be. And I report that he was absolutely, totally loyal to his word.” — Sen. Minority Leader Dan Blue (D-Wake)
• “I believe these Senate maps are as good as humans can draw.” — Sen. Natasha Marcus (D-Mecklenburg)

Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell), who co-chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee, said, “Republicans won under districts drawn by the Democratic Party’s own mapmaking expert, selected at random by a lottery ball machine, and then amended again by Democrats. Hopefully this puts to rest the decade-long redistricting saga.”