The Daily Tar Heel
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The Daily Tar Heel

Letter: ?Choice compromised by district boundaries

TO THE EDITOR:

It is well acknowledged that the right to vote is the basis of American democracy. But do we really have the right to elect a representative government when given no choice in candidates?

In the 2014 election, 47.06 percent, or nearly half, of the N.C. General Assembly body ran completely unopposed — the only steps these members had to take to secure their seat were to file paperwork and pay the filing fee. Even worse, an additional 40 percent of the N.C. General Assembly members ran in uncompetitive elections, in which they won their race by a double-digit margin. Normally, the factors behind state legislators running unopposed and in uncompetitive races are things like voter apathy and disinterest in local elections, but these statistics are too high to attribute solely to indifference.

Gerrymandering, redrawing voter district lines in order to ensure that the political party in power will stay in power, is the culprit robbing North Carolinians of their right to elect a representative legislature. By drawing voter district lines to lump citizens that usually vote together for the party in power, gerrymandering makes some votes count more than others (or not at all).

It is for this reason that we need redistricting reform now; we cannot allow the continuation of uncompetitive, unfair elections in which some votes count more than others. North Carolinians deserve a choice in their elections.

Kaitlyn Oakley

Junior

Public policy, Spanish

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