Ethnic Media Services organized a briefing to shed light on new realities regarding redistricting maps in states south of California, especially since they now include vulnerable populations and minorities that are now represented.
The redistricting process in the country is coming to an end, so it is important to know where we are assigned to better understand the needs of our environment. The new maps of the southern states have reduced or dismantled the electoral opportunities of the region's rapidly growing Afro-descendant communities.
Mitchell Brown, Voting Rights Advisor, Southern Coalition for Social Justice noted, “By ignoring where Black people live, where Latinx people live, where AAPI communities are in North Carolina, they are ignoring the humanity of the voters who are trying to elect their candidates.”
Similarly, Deborah Chen, an attorney and community organizer with OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates in Texas, said they encountered difficulties — maps were not available in advance, there was no information to understand how the lines were drawn, and therefore a congressional district like District 22 “was drawn to make it whiter.”
Sean Morales-Doyle, acting director of the Brennan Center for Justice, said the year is beginning with more bills “restricting access to voting” in state legislatures than is typically seen in an entire year.
Such was the case with the restriction on voting by mail, which occurred immediately after the 2020 elections, following a dramatic increase in the number of people voting by mail.
Charles Mann, a redistricting activist in Spartanburg, South Carolina, said that “we have to deal with so much cruelty about drawing lines or creating fair opportunities to elect the people we want.” He stressed that none of the Democratic members of the Senate committee were consulted before the maps were made public, leading to inequality.
He announced that the maps would be challenged, adding: “Now we can focus on the next election cycles and we can raise voter awareness.”
