Mississippi Ordered To Redraw State Supreme Court Election Map [View all]

A federal judge has ordered Mississippi to redraw its Supreme Court election map, finding that the current map unfairly weakens the voting power of Black voters. On Aug. 19, U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock ruled that the map, which has been in place since 1987, violates the Voting Rights Act and cannot be used for future elections.

A new map must be created before the next election takes place in 2028, according to Courthouse News Service.

The lawsuit, filed in April 2022, argued that the map splits the Delta region—an area with a large Black population—in half, diluting the voting power of Black Mississippians living in the “Central district,” or Supreme Court “District 1,” according to the suit. The case centered on claims from four plaintiffs living in Mississippi’s Central district. They argued that the current map unfairly reduces the influence of Black voters, violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voters from racially biased election maps.

Judge Aycock agreed, citing evidence from a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which set out a framework for determining whether an electoral map unfairly harms minority voters. She found that the Black population in the Central district is large enough and geographically concentrated to form a majority in a single-member district, but white voters typically vote as a bloc, defeating candidates preferred by Black voters.



https://newsone.com/6397404/mississippi-ordered-to-redraw-state-supreme-court-election-map/