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Carolina Curious: Why Not Draw Voting Districts With County Lines?

North Carolina's U.S. House districts. Courtesy: North Carolina General Assembly

There's been a lot of talk over the last few years about who should be drawing North Carolina's legislative districts and how it might be done.

Those questions have been underlined by a host of lawsuits over the fairness of districts, both state and federal.

WFDD listener Steve Patterson asked us why electoral maps can't be created in a simpler way:

Why can't voting districts be drawn using established county lines in order to eliminate gerrymandering of the districts?

In this edition of Carolina Curious, WFDD's Sean Bueter talks with Wake Forest University professor John Dinan to find out more.

Interview Highlights

On the practicalities of making sure each district has an equal population:

Sean Bueter joined WFDD in August 2015 as a reporter covering issues across the Piedmont Triad and beyond.Previously, Sean was a reporter, host and news director at WBOI in Fort Wayne, Ind., just a few hours from where he grew up. He also sorted Steve Inskeep's mail as an intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.Sean has experience on a variety of beats, including race, wealth and poverty, economic development, and more. His work has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and APM's Marketplace.In his spare time, Sean plays tennis (reasonably well), golf (reasonably poorly), and scours local haunts for pinball machines to conquer.

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