A Federal Judge in Alabama Has Ruled That the State’s Redistricting Violated African-american Voting Rights.

By Jessa Martin On Jan 26, 2022

According to a ruling by a federal judge on Monday, the Alabama legislature’s modified United States congressional district plan for the November elections violates the Voting Rights Act and would deny Black voters an additional representation in the House of Representatives.

According to the verdict, which can be challenged, it resolves a point of contention between the two major political parties, in which Democrats accuse Republicans of exploiting their relative strength in state legislatures in order to reduce Black voting strength.

States in the United States must redraw congressional districts once every ten years to account for demographic trends. Most states have legislative influence over redistricting, which can lead to one political party changing district lines in order to consolidate its power.

However, while ethnic minorities constitute a majority of votes in only one of the state’s seven congressional districts, African Americans account for 27 percent of its total population in the state of Alabama.

In that district, which is centered around the city of Birmingham, the Democratic Party is in control, while the other six are controlled by the Republicans.

Three judges on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama determined that the Republican-dominated Alabama state legislature should have drawn district lines in such a way that minorities would have had an overwhelming majority in a second district or at the very least a better chance of competing.

It is the judges’ opinion in a 225-page ruling that “the appropriate remedy is a congressional redistricting plan that includes either an additional majority-black congressional district or an additional district in which Black voters otherwise have an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.”

Because the legislature needs time to redrew the lines, the court postponed an upcoming candidate qualification deadline until Feb. 11.

The control of the closely divided United States House of Representatives will be at stake in the elections on November 8, according to polls.

Many Democrats have claimed that Republicans exploit gerrymandering and voting access rules to suppress black voters, despite the fact that African Americans support Democrats in overwhelming numbers. Republicans argue that limited voter access rules are necessary to prevent fraud in the voting process.

While Democrats dominate both houses of the legislature and the governor’s office in New York, it is Republicans who accuse Democrats of treating them unfairly in their legislative and executive functions.

The redistricting panel of New York State has failed to reach an agreement on a new congressional plan, effectively guaranteeing that the state’s Democratic lawmakers will alter the state’s congressional district borders.

Commissioners from the Republican Party claimed that Democrats were purposefully refusing to engage ahead of the deadline on Tuesday “so that the determination of district borders would be sent back to the legislature, which is controlled by Democratic supermajorities.”