Morris Fiorina: Yes, Virginia, there really ARE independent voters!

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
5 False Assumptions Political Pundits Make All the Time (By Molly Ball, The Atlantic) It's true that self-described independents are more likely to have a partisan leaning than to be "pure independents" -- centrists who find themselves equally sympathetic with both sides' views. But the "independents" are still more independent than the partisans on either side.


VOTING RIGHTS ACT

• Analysis - In U.S. voting-rights case, liberal justices pitch to Kennedy (By Joan Biskupic, The Star - UK) Barely a minute into a U.S. Supreme Court hearing, liberal justices began a strategic barrage of questions that came down to this: Why should a time-honoured plank of the 1965 Voting Rights Act be invalidated in a case from Alabama with its history of racial discrimination?
• Sotomayor, Kagan ready for battles (By Dana Milbank, Washington Post) For a quarter-century, Antonin Scalia has been the reigning bully of the Supreme Court, but finally a couple of justices are willing to face him down.

Partisans All in a Fight About Redistricting Lines

PARTISAN REDISTRICTING BATTLEFIELDS

• Redistricting Roundup: Stormy tension continues as bipartisan continuity drying up (Edited by Geoff Pallay, Ballot News)
• Our watchdog role in redistricting (By Dorothy Shaw, Atlanta Journal Constitution) A few states use an independent commission, an approach we strongly advocate. In 2006, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s Independent Redistricting Task Force made a similar recommendation to put the line drawing in the hands of a citizens’ redistricting commission, but unfortunately the Legislature ignored the recommendation.
• Arizona sues over Voting Rights Act (by Alia Beard Rau, The Arizona Republic) Arizona is the first state to challenge the constitutionality of sections of the federal law that forbid states from enacting a law or process that denies or limits someone's right to vote based on their race or color.

NC: Using Voting Rights Act to Create Safe Seats

REDISTRICTING
Chris Fitzsimon: GOP's redistricting reversal (Daily Reflector - Greenville NC) The plans pack African-American voters to increase the number of safe Republican seats and diminish the influence of African-Americans across the state. Republicans cynically defend that practice by pointing to the Voting Rights Act, a law Republicans have long criticized and some have fought to repeal. No independent commission would ever draw maps that look anything like the ones the Republicans are now proposing. They are literally choosing their voters to stay in power and that is exactly what they promised not to do.