Today is the last day for the general public to make comments as Alabama lawmakers redraw the State’s Congressional maps. Governor Kay Ivey set July seventeenth to meet over the issue. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with a three-judge panel that the current maps likely violated the Voting Rights Act. The issue is diluting the power of black voters. African Americans make up twenty five percent of Alabama’s population. State lawmakers set aside just one majority black Congressional district.
"The Alabama Legislature has one chance to get this done before the July 21 court deadline," Ivey said in a statement. "Our Legislature knows our state, our people and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups do."
The Associated Press previously reported that the three judge panel said in its 2022 ruling that Alabama should have "two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it."
"I'm hoping that this is a time where our elected officials choose to put Alabama on the right side of the Voting Rights Act," said Evan Milligan, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that led to the redistricting order, said in a telephone interview. "We spend a lot of time, energy, money, fighting against things that would really benefit a lot of people."
The Supreme Court decision sets up Alabama's first significant revamp of its congressional districts since 1992, when Alabama was ordered by the courts to create its first majority-Black district. The plaintiffs in the case have proposed a new map they say would comply with the court's order and the Voting Rights Act. It would redraw the state's 2nd congressional district, now represented by Republican Rep. Barry Moore, to create what is described as an "opportunity" district because it would give Black voters, now making up 50% of the voting age population, a greater opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. The proposed district would stretch to the west and encompass some Black Belt counties and parts of Mobile County.
"We are urging the redistricting committee and the Alabama Legislature to adopt this map so we can move this process forward and be ready for our next election," Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama chapter of the NAACP, told the committee.
However, the longtime leader of the Alabama Democratic Caucus, a political organization for Black Democrats, said he is concerned that it did not go far enough to create a "safe Black district."
"Unless we have a majority voting age population — a sizeable one — we will have nothing. I'm not mad at anyone, but you got to be real," Joe Reed told the committee.
