North Carolina Lawmakers Approve New Maps, Congressional Primary Date

The North Carolina General Assembly wrapped up a special session Friday devoted to approving new congressional districts.

The final votes yielded a new map and a different date for the congressional primary.

Sean Bueter spoke with WUNC's Jorge Valencia, who was at the Statehouse covering the events this week.

“The thing is when you have two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that you have to rearrange, in fact, you change the whole thing,” says Valencia.

Valencia outlines the changes and spells out why this could lead to electoral chaos.

Interview Highlights:

What's new under this congressional map:

"The biggest, most prominent thing [is what] has not changed, which is that North Carolina still is going to have ten Republicans representing us in Congress and three Democrats representing in Congress. That's the biggest thing."

"But there are a few districts that have changed significantly because the current Congress members no longer live there – most prominently, we have Congresswoman Alma Adams, who represents parts of Greensboro, the section that goes down Interstate-85 and parts of Charlotte. That district is now confined to just Charlotte and Mecklenburg county. So, Congresswoman Adams is no longer a resident of the district that she represents. We've got another one that's represented by George Holding. It includes parts of Wake County and seven counties that are in the central part of the state. He is no longer a resident of that district because that has now completely shifted to the western part of the state."

On the upcoming elections and why it could mean voter confusion:

"What it looks like is two competing primaries. Why? Because the new law says that the primary is going to be on June 7th. However, the Republicans in the majority in the General Assembly – they maintain that the maps they drew in 2011 are constitutional. So, they've asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the lower court ruling, which would allow to go forward with the current maps of 2011 and the March 15th date. The Supreme Court has not said anything in one direction or the other. So, until the Supreme Court says something, candidates who are running for those one of those thirteen seats may choose to run both in the March 15th date, in case that ends up being it, or they'll run for June 7th."

Valencia says this could all change if the Supreme Court intervenes. He adds that lawmakers are urging voters to cast congressional ballots on March 15th as well, just in case.