The November election will include the first vote for Alabama’s newly redrawn District two U.S. House seat. An analysis by the non-profit National Redistricting Foundation says turnout could be big. Over fifty seven thousand voters took part in the Democratic primary. That’s a one hundred and thirty three percent jump over the 2022 party election. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Alabama to redraw District two to create a second minority majority seat in the U.S. House.
A release by the National Redistricting Foundation says…
“It’s clear that Alabama’s representative map is a boon for political participation. That’s great news for democracy,” said Marina Jenkins, Executive Director of the NRF. “When voters know they have the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, they are more motivated to show up to the polls and fulfill their civic duties. The extraordinary increase in voter turnout since Allen v. Milligan not only highlights the power of fairness in our electoral system, but also that previously gerrymandered maps were detrimental to voter turnout and discouraged voters from engaging in the political process altogether.”
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Alabama to redraw District two to create a second minority majority seat in the U.S. House. A federal court adopted new boundaries for the 2nd District last year following a lawsuit that alleged the state's congressional districts were "racially gerrymandered" to limit the influence of the state's Black voters. Alabama has a Black population of about 27%, but the lawsuit claimed the old map illegally concentrated them in one congressional district to limit their political power, a practice known as "packing." The case went to the Supreme Court, which affirmed the lower court's ruling requiring the state legislature to create a second district with a sizable share of Black voters.
The court-ordered map will be in place for the 2024 election, although Republican state Attorney General Steve Marshall said his office will go back to court to restore the original boundaries for future elections. Under the old plan, Republicans enjoyed lopsided electoral advantages in six of the state's seven U.S. House districts.
The new 2nd District stretches from the Georgia border in southeast Alabama to the Mississippi border in the southwest. It includes Montgomery and parts of Mobile. The district has a Black population of about 49%, up from about a third of the population under the old lines. Voters in the new 2nd District favored Democrats in the last two presidential elections, giving President Joe Biden about 56% of the vote in 2020 and Hillary Clinton about 54% of the vote in 2016.
