RALEIGH – In the coming weeks, the North Carolina legislature will create new congressional and legislative voting districts, intended to be in place for the next decade. Just how those lines are drawn will affect every North Carolinian and shape the future of our state.

As such, Common Cause NC is launching a new campaign to educate, engage and empower people in North Carolina to make their voices heard in this year’s crucial redistricting. The campaign includes robust digital engagement designed to encourage public participation in the map-drawing process. Common Cause NC is also placing billboards in Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Greenville, Kinston, Raleigh, Rocky Mount and Wilson to help raise awareness of redistricting in those communities.

Funding for the public education campaign is made possible by a generous matching grant from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation, along with a wide variety of small donors who support the effort to end gerrymandering in North Carolina.

“Centuries of disenfranchisement in North Carolina continues to this day in the form of Jim Crow gerrymandering designed to steal voting power from people of color. The U.S. Supreme Court found that racist redistricting was at play when the General Assembly drew our maps the last redistricting cycle,” said Todd Stiefel, president of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation. “We’re proud to support the crucial work of Common Cause NC to educate, engage and empower North Carolinians to make their voices heard in this year’s redistricting and to ensure we have fair maps for all.”

The public engagement campaign complements the ongoing grassroots organizing of Common Cause NC, which includes community redistricting workshops held throughout the state to help the public understand the importance of redistricting and how to push back against gerrymandering.

“It’s critical that all North Carolinians are able to fully participate in this year’s redistricting and that lawmakers actually listen to public input,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause NC. “We’re truly grateful to the Stiefel Freethought Foundation for its generous support of our work to end gerrymandering in North Carolina. Our state must have fair voting maps that protect communities and respect everyone’s freedom to have a say in who represents them.”

Learn more about how North Carolinians can make their voices heard in this year’s redistricting process.

Common Cause NC is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy.

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