Dennis Burns: Time for nonpartisan redistricting

The recent special legislative session redrawing North Carolina’s congressional voting maps laid bare just how broken our state’s redistricting system is, with lawmakers openly declaring that their goal was to craft gerrymandered districts for partisan gain.

Through the years, both parties have been guilty of gerrymandering, and the result has been the same: costly litigation, voting disruption and a lack of competition in our elections. North Carolina deserves a better way of drawing our voting maps.

Fortunately, a growing number of Republicans and Democrats support establishing an impartial redistricting process. In fact, it was just more than a year ago that a bipartisan majority of N.C. House members signed on as co-sponsors of House Bill 92, which would give redistricting power to a nonpartisan body.

In recent months, over 240 local elected officials in 128 towns and cities across the state have signed a petition urging the legislature to pass common-sense redistricting reform.

Hopefully our state lawmakers will heed that bipartisan call and help reverse the corrosive effects of political gerrymandering by establishing an impartial redistricting system.

North Carolinians can add their voice to the call for redistricting reform at EndGerrymanderingNow.org.

This story was originally published February 27, 2016 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Dennis Burns: Time for nonpartisan redistricting."