Alabama’s new congressional map has been rejected due to low black district representation. The original congressional map had only one black district and was sent for remapping by the Supreme Court.
The original Alabama congressional map had a glaring flaw according to the Supreme Court. The original map had only one black district for the state. The Supreme Court ruled that Alabama was in possible violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Tuesday, a three judge panel ruled that the new Alabama congressional map was still lacking in design. The statement from the judges went into further detail.
“The law requires the creation of an additional district that affords Black Alabamians, like everyone else, a fair and reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.”
The arguments made against the state of Alabama deal with a perceived tampering of votes. This tampering is believed to reduce votes made by minority voters during upcoming elections. Due to this perception, the courts asked for the state to redraw the maps to show a comparable congressional map to the percentage of black population in the state.
Alabama Republicans believe this map will actually allow the black population of the state to have more choice over their congressional leaders. The democrats do not think so. In fact, the democrats believe the congressional mapping restricts both choice and voting rights and want to see at least two more districts added.
The new map, which was presented and denied, has some drastic changes that increase various voting areas. For example, the new map has a significant increase to districts 3, 6, and 7.
This gives more of the population a larger area of choice. The democrats, however, are focusing on the fact there is one black majority area rather than the expansions of other areas that add to those districts black voting populace.
The likely outcome of the new map being rejected, is more infighting over the district lines. The new orders from the Supreme Court are to have a special official step in and make the new map changes. This new ruling also does not offer Alabama the chance to reconfigure the current map.
