An examination of 2014 election results in North Carolina shows that effective gerrymandering left many legislative candidates unopposed and caused a large discrepancy between partisan votes and results. The Asheville Citizen-Times reports the following results of congressional and state legislative districts drawn by the legislature to maximize partisan gain:

• Half of all state House races and 38 percent of all state Senate races featured only one candidate.
• Republican candidates won 55.4 percent of all votes for U.S. House but won 76.9 percent of the seats.
• Republican candidates won 53.8 percent of all votes for state Senate but won 68 percent of the seats.
• Republican candidates won 54.1 percent of all votes for state House but won 61.7 percent of the seats.

Common Cause North Carolina’s Jane Pinsky details how Democrats gerrymandered districts in previous cycles when they controlled the legislature and advocates for a less partisan redistricting process in the article. Discussing the challenge of passing reform in the legislature, Pinsky states: “It’s pretty hard for a legislator to say, ‘I’m going to give up the ability to have job security.”

Read the full article.