Federal court: NC must redraw 28 districts, redo state elections

A federal court ruled Tuesday that 28 of North Carolina’s state House and Senate districts were constructed in a way that violated the Constitution. The three-judge panel of the Middle District Court said the districts will have to be redrawn by mid-March of next year and Tar Heel State voters in those localities will have to vote in special primary and general elections by next fall.

“This gives the State a total of seven months from the time the districts were held to be unconstitutional, which is longer than it took the 2011 legislature to redistrict the entire state,” the order states.