The new drawer for maps was named by federal judge judges, in case where a new district map that was approved through lawmakers in the Alabama Legislature is rejected.
On Wednesday the three-judge panel appointed David Ely as the court-appointed map-maker for the coming redistricting hearing before the federal courts. If the map drafted through by Republicans just two weeks ago was deemed unconstitutional, Ely and a court-ordered special master will draw a new congressional map prior to the 2024 elections.
The appointment of a new mapmaker was required to conduct the hearing since the cartographer who was previously selected was withdrawn. Each of the State of Alabama and the plaintiffs, who brought their state in court and challenged the district it had previously chosen, presented its candidates to the job. The judges voted to choose one of the plaintiffs’ candidates.
In the court’s decision in the court order, 3 federal judgesthree federal judges – Stanley Marcus, Anna Manasco as well as Terry Moorer — said they conducted their own investigation on the experience of the candidates and noted that Ely has provided maps and consultation for the legislatures of Texas, California, Utah, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts and Illinois. Ely also worked as the special master for a redistricting issue in Louisianna.
The master of the special court will be Richard Allen, a former chief deputy attorney general of Alabama and the former director for the Alabama Department of Corrections.
The district map that was redrawn by lawmakers in July could see the majority of Covington County shifting into District 1, currently being represented by Jerry Carl, with the Northeast portion of the county in District 2, governed by Barry Moore.
Legislators were required by law to change the congressional districts for Alabama following they learned that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an earlier court’s ruling in 2022 the current district in Alabama are in violation of their rights under the Voting Rights Act. In the Allen and. Milligan lawsuit against the congressional map, approved in 2021, said that the map placed a majority of Alabama’s Black voters in one district (Dist. 7). In 2022 a three-judge panel was in agreement that the state should make new maps to “include or include an additional congressional district that is majority-Black or an alternative district which Black voters would otherwise have an chance to vote for an elected representative of their choice.” A panel argued that the map was discriminatory against Black voters, who make up 25 percent of Alabama’s population, yet could only win election in just one of the seven districts in Alabama. The state contested the ruling, leading to the last week’s Supreme Court decision.
The most recent model of this map approved largely on the lines of the party, with Democrats declaring that it didn’t meet the court’s requirements to create an additional district in which black voters could vote for the candidates they want to vote for.
The story New cartographer is named to draw state district was first published in The Andalusia Star-News.
