LWVNC's Phyllis Demko spoke to state legislators at the Oct. 25 redistricting hearing.

Here are her full remarks: 

Good afternoon. I am Phyllis Demko, representing the League of Women Voters of NC. 

The League believes that the Congressional maps drawn by majority members will significantly disadvantage minority voters. The map labeled CBK-3 would be the least troublesome, but even it jeopardizes the ability of Black voters in eastern North Carolina to elect a candidate of their choice.  

This committee has persisted in saying that race will not be considered as a criterion in redistricting despite a recent Southern Coalition for Social Justice letter asserting your incorrect application of Stephenson and the Voting Rights Act. Perhaps, as the media have suggested, you chose not to include race as a criterion because you think it will protect you from litigation over racial gerrymandering. Being colorblind does not equate to being racially just. In fact, it can mean just the opposite.  

But we believe that you really have considered race! The federal court in the Covington case, which ruled against you, stated: “redistricting legislatures will almost always be aware of racial demographics” even without an analysis of racial data.  

Of course, you are aware – you are aware of where your voters of color reside and you know how they vote – and that makes it easy (without statistics) for you to pack and crack us.

We think you are being disingenuous by saying you do not consider race. To serve your goal of staying in power, you do not need to analyze racially polarized voting – you just need to make it appear that you haven’t. 

We urge you to consider the substance – not the appearance – of what you are doing.  

All of this predicts that if you persist in sham transparency (giving two days to review maps for example), and specious reasoning, you will be called out.  North Carolinians are tired of lawsuits and your ploys to stay decisions in order to delay—long enough for you to get your preferred candidates elected from unconstitutional districts. 

This kind of bad faith is a frightening challenge to our democracy. We are asking you – be a part of positive change and once more, earn the respect of those in this state who revere a truly representative form of government.