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U.S. court rules out Alabama constituency change for violating black voting rights

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A sign of the American flag is displayed in a polling booth in Madison Square Garden, which is used as a polling station in Manhattan, New York, USA on October 24, 2020, the first day of early voting. REUTERS / Jeenah Moon

By Daniel Trotta and Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – A U.S. court on Monday overturned the Alabama lawmaker’s redrawing of the U.S. congressional constituency map for the November election, arguing that it violated the Voting Rights Act and denied black voters an additional representative.

The appeal may address a topic of debate between the two major political parties, where Democrats accuse Republicans of exploiting their relative power in state legislatures to reduce blacks’ voting power.

U.S. states need to draw the lines of Congress once a decade to reflect population changes. In most states, lawmakers control redistricting, which can lead to a party manipulating constituency lines to consolidate its power.

In Alabama, African Americans make up 27% of the population, but ethnic minorities have the majority of voters in only one of the seven constituencies in the state. This neighborhood, which is crowded around Birmingham, is run by the Democratic Party and the other six by Republicans.

Three judges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama found that the Republican-dominated state legislature had to draw district boundaries to give a minority a majority in a second constituency, or at least a better chance of competing.

“The right remedy is a congressional redistribution plan that includes an additional black majority congressional constituency, or an additional constituency in which black voters otherwise have the option to elect a representative,” the judges said in a 225-page ruling. .

The court has postponed until February 11 the next deadline for qualifying candidates to allow the legislature time to redraw the lines.

At stake is the control of the U.S. House of Representatives, which is heavily divided in the November 8 election.

Many Democrats have complained that Republicans use redistricting and voter access laws to oppress black voters because African Americans vote for Democrats. Republicans say the restricted voter access law is intended to prevent fraud.

In New York State, where Democrats control both chambers of parliament and the offices of the governor, it is Republicans who accuse Democrats of injustice.

The New York bipartisan redevelopment committee has failed to reach an agreement on a new map of Congress, ensuring that Democratic state lawmakers will redraw the constituency lines.

Republican commissioners said Democrats had deliberately refused to negotiate ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, “to return the definition of neighborhood lines to a legislature controlled by a Democratic majority.”

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