Judge rejects court order blocking North Carolina Senate elections under accusations of racial gerrymandering

U.S. District Judge James Dever III denied a court order Friday that would have blocked elections from proceeding in two North Carolina Senate districts due to claims of racial gerrymandering. Plaintiffs Rodney Pierce and Moses Matthews argued that Districts 1 and 2 in the new map for the 2024 North Carolina elections were gerrymandered to reduce Black voters’ power, which violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The suit states that “voting in the region is also highly polarized along racial lines — Black voters there are politically cohesive,...