Daily Herald opinion: Politics over fairness: Midterm map manipulation a dangerous ploy that aims to disenfranchise voters

North Carolina this week joined Texas and Missouri in redrawing its congressional districts to help President Donald Trump retain Republican control of the House in next year’s midterm elections.

Protest signs in Raleigh summed up the issue in ways lawmakers in both red and blue states have conveniently ignored. A sea of preprinted blue signs urged lawmakers to put “People over Politicians,” while a homemade poster idealistically reminded officials that fair maps create a “Fair Future.”

“Fair” clearly played no part in the final decision.

“The new congressional map improves Republican political strength in eastern North Carolina and will bring in an additional Republican seat to North Carolina’s congressional delegation,” GOP Rep. Brenden Jones said bluntly during a brief debate.

At least he did not try to the sugarcoat his party’s motives.

But while these maneuvers play into the president’s plans, they have the power to disenfranchise voters, who have less incentive to cast ballots when the system is rigged to favor one party over another. That’s hardly what our Founding Fathers envisioned, and it’s the opposite of what democracy demands.

Not to be outdone, Democrats have shown a willingness to meet the moment with redistricting plans of their own. Voters in California will decide in a Nov. 4 ballot measure whether to allow the state to adopt a temporary map that could help Democrats pick up five more congressional seats, blunting some of the Republican gains.

Pressure is mounting on other Democratic strongholds — including Illinois — to respond in kind. And, frankly, even the strongest fair maps advocates at this point might have trouble maintaining the high road as Republicans cynically mine red states for whatever seats they can wrest from Democrats.

In Illinois, however, Democratic lawmakers who hold power in Springfield have not warmed to the idea of revisiting boundaries to expand their congressional influence, Capitol News Illinois reported Wednesday. But their reasons are far from selfless.

After all, the Illinois congressional map already offers a master class in gerrymandering, with districts slithering through multiple counties and earning the state an “F” grade from the independent Princeton Gerrymandering Project. Currently, 14 of the state’s 17 congressional seats are held by Democrats.

Could the Dems carve out one more? Possibly. But doing so might make retaining some Democratic seats more challenging, Capitol News reports. Plus, Black elected officials are concerned that redrawing boundaries could hurt their political representation.

“We’re going to fight back,” congressional candidate and state Sen. Willie Preston, a Chicago Democrat, the Senate chair of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, told Punchbowl News Wednesday. “We just won’t do so at the expense of our own power.”

There are practical reasons not to tinker with the map, but political motives will no doubt tip the scales.

As we emphasized earlier this year when Texas started the national gerrymandering free-for-all, state-by-state map manipulation is disastrous for democracy and a disservice to American voters who do their homework, cast their ballots and take pride in free and fair elections.

A quote we ran at the time resonates more with each passing week. California Assemblyman Minority Leader James Gallagher, a Republican, argued against his state’s plan to counter Texas’ brazen first move.

“You move forward fighting fire with fire and what happens?” Gallagher said. “You burn it all down.”

That did not stop North Carolina from fanning the flames, and Illinois could still throw a log on the fire before the end of the fall veto session. And it won’t end there.

Spread seems tragically inevitable even as we hope that national redistricting reform will eventually rise from the ashes.

Protesters in North Carolina were right: Fair maps are the first step toward a fair future. It’s too bad today’s politicians don’t seem to want that.