By Mike Cason
A panel of Alabama lawmakers approved a proposed new congressional district map during a contentious meeting Monday, with the Republican majority passing the plan by a vote of 14-6 over opposition from Democrats.
The plan, which was picked over several plans favored by Democrats, moves ahead for further consideration by lawmakers during a special session that starts Monday afternoon.
On June 8, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Alabama’s current map, with one majority Black district out of seven, most likely violates the Voting Rights Act in a state where one-fourth of residents are Black.
A three-judge federal district court ordered the Legislature to approve a new map by Friday. The new map must be in place for next year’s elections.
The reapportionment committee discussed a number of proposed plans before approving one called the “community of interest” plan that was supported by the Republican co-chairs of the committee, Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, and Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro.
On the “community of interest” plan, District 7 would remain the only majority Black district, with a Black voting age population of 51.55%, which would be down from 57.07% on the current map. District 2 would have the second highest percentage of Black voting age population, at 42.45%. That is up from 31.86% on the current map.
The three-judge court said to fix the Voting Rights Act violation, Alabama would need a map with a second district with a majority Black population or close to a majority Black population to give Black voters an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.
Pringle said the “community of interest” map was designed to follow that instruction from the court by providing District 2 as an additional district where Black voters could elect a candidate of their choice.
“The goal here for me was to provide that opportunity for an African American to be elected to Congress in the Second district,” Pringle said.
Democrats on the committee said they lacked key information on the plan, including a report on voting history that would show more accurately whether Black voters would have a realistic chance to elect a candidate in District 2.
Black lawmakers on the panel favored other plans, including those proposed by the plaintiffs who successfully challenged the current map as a violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, supported two plans that would make District 6 the second opportunity district for Black voters. Those plans would put all of Jefferson County in District 6, which would have a Black voting age population of 40%. Although that’s lower than the Black voting age population would be in District 2 under the “community of interest” plan, Smitherman said recent election history shows that Democrats have received more than 50% of the vote in District 6 under the plans he supported.
Smitherman said he doubted the court would accept the “community of interest” plan as creating a second opportunity district for Black voters in District 2.
“It has to be a true and genuine opportunity,” Smitherman said. “We can’t go there trying to fake them out. That’s not going to work.”
Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said the public has had no chance to review the “community of interest” plan because it was not available until Friday, after the two public hearings the reapportionment committee held. England said key information about the plan is missing, including a report on voting history in the districts, or performance report, that will show more than the population numbers about whether the redrawn District 2 would realistically give Blacks a chance to elect a candidate of their choice.
“I don’t understand why it wouldn’t have been presented well in advance to give it time to get that analysis done, to give it also time for sunlight on it for people to vet it, look at it, ask questions about it,” England said. “We don’t even know if it works. And that’s how terrible this process was. The public did not get an opportunity to vet the map that passed today that we don’t even know satisfies the court ruling.”
Pringle said a voting history report on the “community of interest” plan would be available Monday night or Tuesday.
An organization affiliated with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee issued a statement Monday saying the plan approved by the reapportionment committee would be challenged in court if it passes the Legislature.
“It is clear that Alabama Republicans are not serious about doing their job and passing a compliant map, even in light of a landmark Supreme Court decision, ” said Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation. “This map and the process that led up to it are as deceitful as they are shameful. This follows a pattern we have seen throughout history when it comes to redistricting in Alabama, where a predominately white and Republican legislature has never done the right thing on its own, but rather has had to be forced to do so by a court. If the legislature enacts this shameful map, it will be challenged in court.”
The National Redistricting Foundation supports a map proposed by groups that won their case against the current map at the Supreme Court, the Milligan and Caster plaintiffs. That map, called the VRA Plaintiffs Remedial Map, has two districts with a majority Black population. District 2 would have a Black voting age population of 50.08%, and District 7 would have a Black voting age population of 54.5%. Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, spoke for that plan during the committee meeting on Monday.
Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said the Legislature would do its job even though he did not agree with the court decision on the current map, approved in 2021.
“I am frustrated that we’re here,” Reed said. “I feel like that the Legislature did a good job in ‘21, the process of doing what the people of Alabama had asked us to do. I felt like we moved forward with that in an appropriate way and everybody seemed to be satisfied with it.
“I know that the process has moved through the three-judge panel and then to the Supreme Court. And they’ve given an order that we need to redo the map. So here we are. It doesn’t mean we’re excited about it. But we are going to do our job.”
Alabama’s district map has not changed much since 1992, when a federal court order made District 7 the first majority Black district. As a result that year, Alabama elected its first Black member of Congress since 1877.
