Demand More Public Hearings After Draft Maps Are Released!

Right now in Raleigh, politicians are drawing new legislative and congressional maps for North Carolina. These maps will determine who represents North Carolinians in Congress and the State Legislature for the next decade, and the Joint Redistricting Committee is planning to hold just one public hearing in Raleigh after these maps are released. This is UNACCEPTABLE! Given the stakes we face over the next decade, North Carolinians deserve to have numerous opportunities to share their opinions on these draft maps after they are released. We are calling on the Committee to take necessary steps to enhance transparency in this process and ensure all North Carolinians can have their voices heard AFTER the release of the Committee’s draft maps.

Specifically, the Committee should commit to take the following commonsense steps to ensure all North Carolinians can easily give their input on the draft maps:

1. The Committee should host at least one hearing in each community it met in this year prior to maps being drawn.

2. The Committee should add hearings in every county with more than 100,000 residents.

3. The Committee should add additional locations to ensure no North Carolinian has to travel more than an hour to attend in person.

4. The Committee must livestream every hearing and offer virtual options for participation on an online platform that is easily accessible to the public.

Submit a Letter to the Editor (“LTE”) to your local news outlets to help raise the public’s awareness of the stakes of redistricting and call on our legislators to commit to taking these necessary, commonsense steps AFTER draft maps are released.