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For immediate release.
Dec. 15, 2010
Contact: Bryan Warner, N.C. Center for Voter Education, 877-258-6837

N.C. Center for Voter Education Statement on Gov. Perdue’s Call for Independent Redistricting Commission

RALEIGH – When meeting with members of the N.C. General Assembly today, Gov. Bev Perdue called on state lawmakers to create an independent redistricting commission.

Gov. Perdue’s proposal comes as the state legislature prepares in the coming months to redraw legislative and congressional voting districts based on the latest U.S. census data, as constitutionally mandated.

The following is a statement from Damon Circosta, executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, in response to Gov. Perdue’s support for an independent commission:

“For years, Republicans and Democrats alike have joined good-government supporters in calling for an independent commission to take partisan politics out of drawing voting districts. As the late Republican state Sen. Ham Horton said, the current system of redistricting has allowed politicians to choose their voters, instead of the other way around.

“Since drawing legislative lines always creates winners and losers it has been tough to get enough people from both sides of the aisle to enact reform. Right now the political winds may be just right. We are in an era where all sides have something to gain from fixing the redistricting process. In the upcoming session we could, once and for all, make drawing legislative boundaries about fairness, not gerrymandering.”

Founded in 1999, the N.C. Center for Voter Education is a Raleigh-based nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, dedicated to helping citizens more fully participate in democracy.

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