The state Supreme Court in New Mexico has unanimously upheld the current configuration in that state of Congressional district lines following court challenges to district boundaries believed to favor Democrats.
The dispute made it previously to before this court, but that stage of the proceedings was followed by further consideration at a lower level. “The trial court determined that while the congressional map does favor Democrats, it did not find that “the disparate treatment of vote dilution rises to the level of an egregious gerrymander,”” the voting rights organization Democracy Docket explained in a Monday news update. That decision was what the state’s highest court upheld, which sets the rhetorical stage for next year’s Congressional elections in New Mexico to proceed with these lines in place. The state is currently represented entirely by Democrats in both the House and Senate.
Other redistricting disputes in court also continue moving forward.
Just last week, a Tennessee court ordered a redo of Tennessee’s map of state Senate districts over a lack of consecutive numbering for certain districts covering portions of the same county. The numbering of a district determines when it appears on the ballot, with even-numbered jurisdictions appearing in presidential election years and odd-numbered districts up in off-years. The other elections on a ballot can have some impact on results for any given race, such as through a turnout surge associated with a high-stakes presidential contest.
Distributing a county’s state Senate districts, in general terms, evenly across presidential election years and those without such a race can help ensure a more even shot for campaigns. The soon-to-be old map of state Senate districts in Tennessee “created three odd-numbered districts in Davidson County — home to the state’s capital city of Nashville,” Democracy Docket said last week. That arrangement would have forced these elections out of presidential election years. The county is heavily Democratic.
