gerrymandering

Parts of the state may be a bit busier tomorrow. Voting rights activists are planning protests following special sessions in Alabama and other states. Demonstrators plan to speak out over efforts to erase African American U.S. House seats including Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee.

Thousands of Louisiana voters have already cast early ballots for congressional candidates in what soon could be the wrong districts. Alabama's primaries are a week away, but the state plans a do-over for voting on U.S. House races following Monday’s SCOTUS action to allow the State to use a voting map that eliminates District 2, currently occupied by African American Democrat Shomari Figures. A new congressional map in Tennessee upended races that had been underway for months.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday set the stage for Alabama to get rid of one of two largely Black congressional districts before this year’s midterm elections, creating an opening for Republicans to gain an additional U.S. House seat in a partisan battle for control of the closely divided chamber.

Alabama has asked federal judges to lift a court order requiring the state to have a second district where Black voters are the majority or close to it. Lawmakers are looking to take part in a national redistricting battle. and could vote today plan to alter state's congressional primaries if the courts allow Republican state officials to switch to more advantageous U.S. House maps ahead of the November midterm elections.

The Alabama Senate is poised to vote on its own plan to erase at least one Democratic U.S. House seat held by an African American lawmaker. The Alabama Public Radio news team produced a national award-winning investigation into the creation of District 2, at the order of the U.S. Supreme Court. That includes Lynn Oldshue's 2024 story on a 1960 SCOTUS case that laid the foundation for black voting rights.

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are poised to take up a plan to carve up a majority-Black congressional district, reshaping it to the GOP's advantage as part of President Donald Trump's strategy to try to hold on to a slim House majority in the November midterm elections. The Alabama House passed legislation authorizing special congressional primaries as Republicans eye the possibility of getting a different congressional map in place for the November elections

The Alabama House may debate legislation that would allow the state to hold a special congressional primary, if the Supreme Court clears the way for the state to change its U.S. House districts. The current primary vote is currently set for later this month. Actions in the Alabama House and Senate are drawing an unusual rebuke from the, otherwise non-partisan, State League of Women Voters.

Republican governors in Alabama and Tennessee have summoned lawmakers into special sessions this week seeking new congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Governor Kay Ivey reversed her position following the U.S. Supreme Court decision that race should not be a factor in drawing voter maps.

Alabama lawmakers gather in special session this week to possibly redraw the state's two minority-majority U.S House seats. Both are currently represented by African American Democrats. The National Association of Black Journalists, the Public Media Journalists Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists honored the APR news team for its eight month investigation into the creation of the new District 2 seat, as ordered in 2023 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Here's part one of that series from the APR archives...

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey reversed her original decision to not call a special session over the state’s Congressional map. The National Association of Black Journalists, the Public Media Journalists’ Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists honored the Alabama Public Radio newsroom for its eight month investigation into the state’s newest Congressional seat, which now may be at risk. Click below to listen to APR’s special report from 2024, “…a U.S. House seat, if you can keep it.”