The future leadership of Alabama’s largest county is in the hands of a federal judge who will decide whether Jefferson County commissioners gerrymandered district lines to dwarf the voting rights of Black residents.
In a five-hour hearing Wednesday Judge Madeline Haikala heard arguments from plaintiffs who say the commission’s current five-district map packs Black voters into two districts, unfairly reducing their influence elsewhere in Jefferson County. The plaintiffs want the current map tossed, new lines drawn, and a special election as early as next year.