Hickory: The redistricting committees of the N.C. House and N.C. Senate will hold a joint meeting on Tuesday to gather public comment at Appalachian State University’s Hickory campus. The campus is at 800 17th St. NW.
The meeting will start at 4 p.m. while those who want to speak can begin signing up starting at 3 p.m., according to the meeting notice. Residents may also sign up online to speak at ncleg.gov/RequestToSpeak/70. The online signup option is available until noon on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s meeting in Hickory is one of three public input sessions the committees will be holding across the state and the only one in western North Carolina. The others are scheduled in Elizabeth City on Monday and Raleigh on Wednesday.
Redistricting has long been a contentious topic in North Carolina and disputes over the drawing of the political maps have often gone to the courts.
The latest redrawing of the state’s legislative maps comes months after an April ruling in which the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that partisan gerrymandering — drawing districts in such a way as to benefit one political party over others — is permissible under the state constitution.
That decision overruled a previous case from February 2022 in which the then-Democratic majority Supreme Court found partisan gerrymandering to be unconstitutional.