The most recent version of a fresh Alabama congressional map that was approved by the members from the Alabama House and Senate on Friday will bring certain changes to Covington County should it be approved by an judge panel.
Representatives from the House of Representatives worked on Friday drawing a new congressional map, as it was the last day to adhere to the court-ordered deadline.
Both the House and Senate approved their respective versions of district maps earlier on, the most recent version that was approved by both chambers on Friday includes the majority of Covington shifting to Dist. 1, as well as Mobile, Baldwin, and Escambia counties. In this map the northeastern part of the county that extends southward, to include at least a part of Opp is still in Dist. 2.
The map proposed would preserve Dist. 7 as the sole majority Black district, with 51 percent, based on Black voter age which is lower than the 56 percent in the current map. This would boost the Black voting age of the population in Dist. 2, which is located in the southeast of Alabama from 30 up to 40. Dist. 2 would encompass Butler as well as Lowndes counties west of the county, Montgomery, Mason and Russell counties to the north, as well as all the remaining southeastern counties that lie between beyond the Florida as well as Georgia state boundaries.
Legislators were required by law to change the congressional districts of Alabama after their decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an earlier court’s ruling in 2022 which found that the present districts were in violation of their rights under the Voting Rights Act. In the Allen and. Milligan lawsuit against the congressional map, adopted in 2021, stated that the map consolidated a large portion of Alabama’s Black voters into one district (Dist. 7). In 2022 the three-judge panel voted in favor and ordered the state to make new maps to “include or include an additional congressional district with a majority of Blacks or a district which Black voters have the chance to vote for the representative they want.” This panel claimed the map was discriminatory against Black voters, who make up 25 percent of Alabama’s population, but only won races in one the seven districts in Alabama. The state fought the decision, leading to the last week’s Supreme Court ruling.
The map that was approved by the Senate on Friday has been widely criticized by Democrats who would prefer an identical map to the one was drawn by defendants of the suit. This version would most likely preserve Dist. 7, which is currently comprised of Democrat Terri Sewell from Selma and would also create another congressional district made up of the Black majority, which stretches across Washington County in the west and extends to Monroe, Conecuh, and Butler counties, extending through the eastern border counties Russell, Barbour and Henry. The map would combine all the counties in Alabama’s southernmost region into one district that extends across Baldwin to Mobile counties to the west, and then move eastward, to include Escambia, Covington, Geneva, Coffee, Dale, and Houston counties.
In reaction to the maps that were approved and a joint statement from plaintiffs in the Allen and the Allen. Milligan plaintiffs stated, “The Alabama Legislature believes it is above the law. What we’re dealing with is a group of legislators who are flagrantly disregarding not only the Voting Rights Act, but also a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court and an order of the court that is composed of 3 judges. They are continuing to ignore the their constituents’ requests to ensure that the map is fair, and continue to be determined to deprive Black people of their rights to the fair representation they deserve. We’re not going to let this occur … The group are not going to rest until State of Alabama complies with the Voting Rights Act and creates the map that includes two districts in which Black voters have a fair chance to vote for their candidate of their choice, and that the Legislature does its job to comply with laws.”
The state legislature was required to present a new map of the congressional district before the court of federal appeals on Friday. If the court doesn’t like the map an outside partyor a “special master” could be entrusted with drawing the map for the state.
(Editor’s Note (Editor’s Note): (Editor’s Note: The Star-News will be revising this story in order to add more information on the area to be within the Dist. 2. )
The article New version of state congressional map could bring adjustments for Covington County, if approved by the court was first published in The Andalusia Star-News.
