ger·ry·man·der
noun

1. The definition of a gerrymander is a changing of voting districts to give one party an advantage or disadvantage a group.
 An example of a gerrymander is a creation of a smaller voting district to take away votes from a particular candidate.

verb

1. Gerrymander is defined as to divide a voting area to give one political party a majority.
 An example of gerrymander is to change the geographic boundries of a voting district so that more voters from one political party are included.

 

What a mess! “The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied.” And with a single sentence, the Republicans were stopped in their tracks.  Shortly before 10 p.m. on Friday, 2.19, the Supreme Court let stand a February 5 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina which ruled that congressional redistricting maps were invalid. Our North Carolina state legislators had been ordered by the district court to, within two weeks, redraw our congressional electoral maps on the grounds that the original maps amounted to racial gerrymandering.  Both districts, the 1st and 12th, are majority black districts. State Senator Josh Stein, a Democratic candidate for attorney general, noted that North Carolina was the state that President Obama most narrowly won in 2008 and most narrowly lost in 2012. “North Carolina is a 50-50 state, and yet this map all but guarantees 10 out of our 13 congressional delegations will be Republican,” he said. “We live in North Carolina, not North Korea. The voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around.”  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/20/us/north-carolina-fights-over-its-election-rules.html?ref=politics Could it be that what is going on – the redrawing of the districts “without regard to race” as the Republicans would retort – will spawn another challenge, a new category of gerrymandering?  Would the Supreme Court consider such grounds as “partisan gerrymandering”?  Political commentators are pondering that thought at this point.

This excellent article that, in its succinct explanation of what our nation would be without gerrymandering, provides clear graphics of the entire country as it currently stands and what it would look like without the scourge of gerrymandering. (Note that the graphic of North Carolina is from June 2014.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/13/this-is-actually-what-america-would-look-like-without-gerrymandering/

Update on Voter Registration Activities
This is a message from Kate Fellman, Director of the You Can Vote Program —

Thanks to you and all of the hard working volunteer teams across the Triangle we have some pretty great results to share. It is only February but we are trained and mobilized in Durham, Wake and Orange Counties. You should be really proud of this work!

By the numbers . . .
3: Number of Counties with trained voter education & registration teams
46: Number of Captains running drives and serving as data, materials, and phone bank leaders
188: Number of volunteers who have already been trained/re-trained on educating voters
599: Number of people on this email list who have signed up to work with YCV

Now for the numbers you are waiting for…
623: Wake Registrations
50+: Orange Registrations (not bad for only one official event so far!).
1397: Durham Registrations
308+: Campus Registrations
2378+: OVERALL REGISTRATIONS! But here’s the really important part… 
Volunteers had CONVERSATIONS with over 10,000 voters to help prepare them to vote in 2016!
Thank you to our teams in Orange, Wake and Durham for your work so far. We know there is MUCH more to come before the October 14th deadline for the General Election. But right now, give yourselves a pat on the back for a stellar launch in this election year.

Wake Phone Banks for GOTV
We will call the voters to remind them to get out and vote in the NC Primary election, early voting locations, times etc.

Sunday, March 6
1PM – 4PM
RSVP HERE

Tuesday, March 8
5:30PM – 8:30 PM
RSVP HERE

Thursday, March 10
5:30PM – 8:30PM
RSVP HERE

Saturday, March 12
2PM – 5PM
RSVP HERE

Thanks for all you do. Please let me know if you have any questions… and go team!
Kate Fellman
Program Director
You Can Vote
919-274-9117
vote@youcanvote.org

And a big, big thank you to Manju Karkare, our VR Crew Coordinator extraordinaire, for managing all our efforts in Wake County.
http://www.youcanvote.org/events

Calendar
Timely Topics lunches sponsored by the Wake County League of Women Voters:
Friday, Feb. 24 – “Pathways to Third Grade Reading: The Importance of Early Childhood Experiences” at noon
Ridge Road Baptist Church, 2011 Ridge Rd., Raleigh
Free – bring a bag lunch

Friday, Feb 26 – 7:30PM   A new 30 minute documentary about voting in North Carolina. Showing on TWC Channel 14.  It will feature some familiar faces!

Wednesday, March 23 6-8PM  Discourse, Drinks & Dinner – Join us for an evening of lively political discussion.  Location TBD.

Save the date for our next big event: Candidate Lunch at 18 Seaboard. April 28.

Kudos to Tara Romano for the following LTE, published in the News & Observer on 2.19.2016.  http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article61134067.html

We are asking you to make a donation of $45 to allow us to make the small purchases that keep us going.  You will receive:  a YCV t shirt, a VOTE cling for your car, and access to all our events. You can pay with a credit card through PayPal at upcoming events, by check, or cash.  Let us know your t-shirt size too.

Mail to:  Politica NC, P. O. Box 12796, Raleigh, NC 27605.

Pay your dues by March 1 and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a copy of Notorious RBG.  To learn the five reasons you should read this book go to: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/10/tumblr-notorious-rbg-book-ruth-bader-ginsburg
Ready to hear what Canadians think about our 2016 elections?  Let’s just say, they have a lot of questions.
https://www.facebook.com/inthenowrt/videos/578195305664176/