NAACP asks DOJ to reject Guilford redistricting plan

UPDATE: Allison Riggs, voting rights attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice who is working with the NAACP on the challenge, says the charge of racial packing is based on the 3.0 percent increase in black voting age population in the Davis district.

"Black voters in High Point are concentrated in a number that is higher than Bruce Davis needs to win," she said.

Riggs, who was joined by Barber on a conference call, discounted the notion that maintaining at least 50 percent black voting age population is necessary to avoid retrogression under the Voting Rights Act.

"There are situations of retrogression where you have unavoidable retrogression," she said.

ORIGINAL POST: The North Carolina NAACP is calling on the US Justice Department to reject a redistricting plan for the Guilford County Commission that was imposed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly in July. Guilford County is covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires that any change in voting districts must be approved by the federal government.

The news of the challenge comes in a press release from the Rev. William J. Barber, president of the state NAACP. Greensboro NAACP President Cardes Brown and Guilford County Commissioner Carolyn Coleman said a press conference will be held tomorrow in High Point.

Brown and Coleman took particular exception in an interview this evening to the effect of the GOP plan on two white Democrats on the commission, Kay Cashion and Kirk Perkins.

"[The Republicans have] worked hard to eliminate allies to the black community who have at least been open to compromise and cooperation," Brown said, "and [they are] stacking it with people who are estranged to the community and are attempting to keep it oppressed."

"What they did is they took out of Kirk Perkins' district the 35 percent African American population that would have been important because that gives us influence," Coleman added.

Coleman's district is 5.3 percent below ideal population following the 2010 Census count and would need to pick up an extra precinct to be rebalanced. All of the adjacent districts have either lost population or remained about even except Perkins' district, making it a logical source of population to replenish Coleman's district. A map submitted by Democratic County Commission Chairman Skip Alston overcame both a demographic and a challenge problem by having Coleman's district grow west into Greensboro's Irving Park neighborhood and beyond.

"They're taking away the at-large people, which is where we would have some influence," Coleman said. "They're putting Kay Cashion and Linda Shaw together. That's a more Republican district. I'm not going to comment on who would win or lose. Kirk Perkins' district becomes more conservative. I just don't see where our influence will come from, or where we will be able to exert the influence."

Changes to the three minority-majority districts are subtle and partly caused by demographic realities; all three have lost population over the past decade, and the drop from nine to eight districts means that ideal population has increased. Those two factors combined mean that the three districts must expand geographically.

The Republican plan bleeds black voters — whose registration leans heavily Democratic — out of Perkins' district by transferring six precincts into Coleman's district. Three of them have large black majorities. The district represented by Alston grows west and picks up five racially mixed precincts. The district currently represented by Bruce Davis compensates for a loss of black population in High Point by growing into Greensboro. That is a feature of all proposed plans that meet population-balance requirements, including the one put forward by Alston.

The NAACP press release contains two assertions — one echoed by Brown — that are at odds with reality.

"These new districts pack African-Americans into three districts, limiting minority influence in other districts," the press release reads. Brown said in his comments, "They are stacking and packing minority districts...." The term "packing" suggests that the percentage of black population is being increased.

In considering whether the Republican plan increases the concentration of black population in the three minority-majority districts, I bench-marked black voting age population in the current district plan based on data provided by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. District 1, represented by Davis, has a black voting age population, or BVAP, of 47.7 percent. District 8, represented by Alston, has a BVAP of 62.0 percent. District 9, represented by Coleman, has a BVAP of 63.7 percent.

Based on statistics provided by the NC General Assembly, the new District 1, where Davis is the incumbent, has a BVAP of 50.7 percent. The new District 8, where Alston is the incumbent, has a BVAP of 59.9 percent. The new District 7, where Coleman is the incumbent, has a BVAP of 64.3 percent.

The greatest change, an increase of 3.0 percent, is seen in Davis' district, where the Voting Rights Act requires that black population be at least 50 percent to avoid retrogression. The other increase, in Coleman's district, is insignificant: a bump of 0.6 percent. In Alston's district, BVAP actually decreases by 2.1 percent.

The NAACP press release also states that the Republican plan "bunks white and black incumbents together creating the possibility that there will be no black representation in High Point."

That is not correct. Bruce Davis, a black High Point Democrat, is the only incumbent in the new District 1.

Brown and Coleman could not explain the basis of the assertion in the press release, but Coleman said, "Generally an incumbent finds it easy to win reelection, but if [Davis] leaves that district it is very possible that an African American will not be elected."

NAACP leaders are also criticizing the process by which the Republican redistricting plan was adopted, arguing in the press release that the plan "was enacted with discriminatory intent and will be retrogressive for minority voters. The reduction in representation, coupled with the non-participatory process by which this change in election method occurred, warrants an objection. We call on the US DOJ to reject the submitted plan as the jurisdiction has failed to show that the plan will not be retrogressive to African-American voters."