More NC Elections Shenanigans

[romansperson]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

Thanks for bumping this thread!

Yeah, this is a good basic ruling, but I was a little confused about the lack of a clear order.

It almost seems like a trap to me … ‘you know what you should do, but what will you do?’

That’s why I said to stay tuned … what fuckery will they invent next that needs to be slapped down?

[galen_ubal]

@romansperson

It almost seems like a trap to me … ‘you know what you should do, but what will you do?’

That’s why I said to stay tuned … what fuckery will they invent next that needs to be slapped down?

They’ll present another “bad map”, at which point the court will probably commission some outside expert to draw a new one. Then the NC Republicans will challenge the new map in court, hoping for a stay, long enough to impact the next election.
Delay, delay. If they can delay the implementation of a non-gerrymandered map, then they can continue their domination through the next election.
Eventually, a fairer map will be implemented, but they’ll have gotten through yet another election cycle. Long term doesn’t seem to matter to them.

[romansperson]

I’m not sure how much more wiggle room they have to challenge anything in court. The interesting part will be to see if they return a decent map in time for the next congressional election or not. If not, elections will be delayed, and I think that’s going to piss a lot of folks off. And to add to the drama, once the 2020 census is complete, they’ll have to redraw the districts again. And this state is only getting bigger and more urban.

[galen_ubal]

Actually, I have to take some of that back - just read an article here on Slate saying:

@linked Slate article

North Carolina’s congressional gerrymander is dead. A state court ruled on Monday that the map, which is skewed in Republicans’ favor, likely violates the North Carolina Constitution and may not be used in the 2020 election. The only question now is how long Republicans hem, haw, and dawdle before conceding defeat and redrawing the illegal districts.** Importantly, Republicans will not be permitted to stall past the election; the court made clear that it will delay the 2020 primaries to guarantee a lawful election**.

{emphasis mine}

Now, I’m not certain how authoritative this particular author is, but if he’s correct the Republicans in NC have very little choice in offering a fair map. I think they won’t, anyway, but it’ll quickly be overruled, and/or the primaries will be delayed, and they’ll be the ones with egg on their face.

[Tired_and_Cranky]

@galen_ubal

Actually, I have to take some of that back - just read an article here on Slate saying:
{emphasis mine}

Now, I’m not certain how authoritative this particular author is, but if he’s correct the Republicans in NC have very little choice in offering a fair map. I think they won’t, anyway, but it’ll quickly be overruled, and/or the primaries will be delayed, and they’ll be the ones with egg on their face.

For what my opinion is worth, Mark Joseph Stern is a solid legal reporter but a mediocre to poor legal analyst. That is, when he is reporting what happened, he is overwhelmingly timely and correct. When he is analyzing what will happen as a result, he is often or maybe even usually, off. I’m not sure here on what basis he predicts that the court will prevent the Republicans from delaying.

Dahlia Lithwick, on the other hand, is a great legal analyst and very good reporter for Slate. Unfortunately, she doesn’t do much reporting these days.

[Bijou_Drains]

this is sort of NC politics related:

UNC is giving silent Sam to the sons of confederate veterans. Along with $2.5 mil of non tax money to “take care” of Sam. I guess the money is coming from donors.

UNC System, Sons of Confederate Veterans reach settlement on Silent Sam

And it is the classic case of dumping bad news on the day before a holiday.