Gingles v. Edmisten and Pugh v. Hunt Defendants' First Set of Interrogatories and Requests for Production (Gingles)

    U.S. Ihpertmcnt of Justhe

CivilRights Dvision

Oflice of the Aslstont Attomcy Gencral l)oshington, D.C. 20530

. , , i,0Rf,1

Kathleen Heenan McGuan, Esq.
Ihe Farragut Building
900 Sevenleenth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006

Dear Ints. McGuan:

This refers to House Bt1I 2, Chapter 1 (1984), r*rich
reaooorElons Hcuse Dlstricts 8 and 70 and House Bt11 4t
Chapler 3 (1984), concernigg the Pfolection of a voter's privacy
ln Lhe State of North Carollna, subrnitted to the Attornel
General p,o"r"tt io Section 5 6f the Votlng Rlghts Act of 1965,
as amendLd, 42 U.S.C. 1973c. We received^Portlons ot your
initial submission on March 12 and 29, 1984'

After examlning carefully your inltlal submlsslon, we

have deternined that fhe information sent is lnsufflcient
to enable the Attorney General to determine that the proBosed
;h";t;; do not have the p-urpose. and will not have the effect
oI-aE"yfng or abridging ihg right to vote on account of race
or co16r." So that ie tay be aSLe to complete our analysLs,
please provide the followl-ng lnfornatLon:

1. Your original submlsslon does not lndl-cate the
."r"o, yor, ldentify"th" 1-980 detailed Census,-maps -for 

H400N88

as the tap" oi Ltt"'plan finalLy enacted for Hou-se Distrlcts 8

."a z0 anb ldenrlfy'the computer printout for H400N96 as the
fgAO Census population statistics- for the enacted plan for
House Oistrlii's 8 and 70. You lndicated ln an April,.1?r--1984'
teleohone "onr.r""ito., with Sandra S. Coleroan that H400N88 and
H400ft96 "t"-ia"ttilcal distrlct pLans. We note, however, that
;iGi;:rErU.r Distrlct 7O 1n plin H400N96 1s nonexistent In
H400N88 and the computer prinlout for H400N88 aPPears to list
the same statistics'for single-rnember Dlstrict 54 as the
statLstLcs provtded by the il+OOtlg6 computer printout for Dis-
trict 7O. Please clarifY.



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2. The reasons' by dlstrlct, for the reJectlon of
olan H4OON54. Include thL reason thie plan was not llsted in
[he origlnal subnisslon as an alternate to plan H400N96 nor

""y a"tE supplied as for the other alternates to p1an. H400N96.
tnllude a1s6-the total populatlon, by race, and a small maP for
alternate H400N54.

3. We have recelved allegations that whlle leglslators
welcomed minorl-ty lnput lnto the-drafting of other distrlcts,
such input was avoidld ln the Nash-Edgecombe area after a 48-
p.i-."t'black single-megber dLstrlct In that area (H400N54) was
iejected by the Redistrictlng -Conmlttee- ln favor of a three-
,.ib.r dislrict which was 29:6 percent black (H400N88 and H400N96).
It also has been alleged that an Lncunbent ln the Edgecombe
Corrnty area lobbied a[alnst a- 48-percent black House slngle-.
rnernbe-r dlstrict in thls area because he feared that increased
black voter lnfluence would cause hl-n to lose Ln the next
electlon. Further, w€ recelved alLegatlons that the senflgura-
tion of Dlstrict 70 purposefully was drawn ln such a way- that,
even lf the State later-were required to spllt rou1tl-rnember
District 8 into sLngle-member dlstricts, none of the resul-ting
districts would be ilore than 40 percent black. We are lnterested
ln yor:r response to these allegallons' -lncludlng a-descrlption
of Ltre procL"s used ln the draEting and adoptlo-" of proposed
House Distrlcts 8 and 70 and the extent to nhlch ninority Lnput
was considered ln drawing those distrlcte-. ALso, please explain
.rty the legl-slators reJeEt-ed the use of the fo* slngle-member
district concept ln th6 ndgecombe-Wilson-Naslr aqea, any yhy tl.
configuratlon bf proposed Dlstrlct 70 ln It400N96 was -preferred.
We fuither ask thit you provide the populatlon.99t9l by race,
for each dlstrict relppoitioned !n alternate II400N52.

4. A llst of the criterla established, whether formally
or Lnformally, by the House Redlstrlcting ComrnLttee for each
reapportioneS'diitrict and the extent to whlch those criteria
coniorro to or dtffer from the 1982 crlterla.

5. We have recel-ved aLlegati.ons that this reapportiol-
ment has been characterLzed in general by an intent to minimize
ninorlty lnfluence ln House dlsErlcts ln covered as well as
,ro.coveied countles. It has been alleged that rejection of
Representatl-ve Berryts alternate plan for the Mecklenburg-area
(ff[OOfqgO), 1s refleltive of such in lntent. Please provlde us
riittr any'infonoatlon you feel Ls relevant to an assessment of



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these all-egatl-ons. In additlon, provide total population,
votlng age population, reglstered voter statlstlcs, by race,
for H400N90 and individual maps showing the newly apportioned
Ilouse dlstricts in each area.

Finally, with respect to House 8111 No. 4, Chapter 3
(1984), p1eas6 provide a'descriptl-on of the procedures prlor
to and after its adoption indicatLng each change that affects
voting occasloned by thls act and the reason for lts enactment.
(Although you submitted a copy of the act, you falled to
speclfy the changes.)

The Attorney General has slxty days ln whlch to conslder
a completed subnl-ssion pursuant to Sectlon 5. Itrls slxty-day
revLew period will begin when thls Department receives the
information necessary for the proper evaluation of the changes
you have subnitted. See the Procedures for the Adrninistration
of Section 5 (28 C.F.R. 51.35(a) ). Further, you should be
aware that if no response is recelved within slxty days of thls
request, the Attorney GeneraL rnay object to the proposed changes
consistent with the burden of proof placed upon the submLtting
authority. See also 28 C.F.R. 51.38. Iherefore, please Lnform
us of the course of actlon the State of North Carolina plans to
take to comply with this request.

If you have any questions concerning the matters dlscussed
in thls letter or if we can aid you ln any way to obtain the
additional information we have requested, feel free to call
Ms. Coleman, Deputy Dlrector of the Section 5 Unlt, Voting
Section (202-724-5718). Refer to Flle Nos. J3204 and J3206
in any response to thls letter so that your correspondence
wll1 be channeled properly.

Sl-ncerely,

tln. Bradford Reynolds
Asslstant Attorney General

Civl1 Rlghts Divislon