SC judges rule GOP lawmakers 'intentionally split Black neighborhoods' to 'dilute their voting power': report

06 January 2023

A panel of federal judges ruled that South Carolina GOP lawmakers drew district lines to remove Black voters during midterm elections in November, reports U.S. News & World Report.

The state’s Republican legislators had redrawn congressional maps to “intentionally split Black neighborhoods to dilute their voting power” after the 2020 U.S. Census — also known as gerrymandering.

Once the new GOP-drawn maps were approved, according to U.S. News & World Report, civil rights advocates immediately filed a lawsuit against the state legislature for backing “perhaps the worst option of the available maps" for Black voters.

The NAACP — one of the groups that filed the lawsuit for "racially gerrymandered" maps — confirmed that it plans to request “special elections” in “districts deemed unconstitutional.”

According to the ruling, GOP lawmakers redrew congressional maps for their benefit across the coastal 1st district, which covers land from Charleston to Hilton Head Island. Because of this, GOP Rep. Nancy Mace unseated Joe Cunningham — the first Democrat to hold the seat in 30 years — in 2020.

South Carolina state legislators were requested by the judges to draw new maps by end of March, and asserted that elections cannot proceed in the district until the task is completed.

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