# Redistricting in Alabama

Redistricting in Alabama is the process by which boundaries are redrawn for federal congressional and state legislative districts. It has historically been highly controversial. Critics have accused legislators of attempting to protect themselves from competition by gerrymandering districts.

## History

Elections in Alabama :
Federal government
Presidential elections
1820
1824
1828
1832
1836
1840
1844
1848
1852
1856
1860
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Presidential primaries
Democratic
2000
2004
2008
2016
2020
2024
Republican
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
U.S. Senate elections
1819
1822
1822 sp
1826 sp
1828
1831
1834
1837
1837 sp
1840
1841 sp
1842
1847
1848 sp
1849 sp
1853
1855
1858
1868
1870
1872
1872 sp
1876
1878
1878 sp
1880 sp
1882
1884
1888
1890
1894
1896
1897
1900
1903
1907
1907 sp
1908
1911
1914
1914 sp
1918
1920
1920 sp
1924
1926
1930
1932
1936
1938
1938 sp
1942
1944
1946 sp
1948
1950
1954
1956
1960
1962
1966
1968
1972
1974
1978
1978 sp
1980
1984
1986
1990
1992
1996
1998
2002
2004
2008
2010
2014
2016
2017 sp
2020
2022
2026
2028
U.S. House of Representatives elections
1819
1821
1823
1825
1827
1829
1831
1833
1835
1837
1839
3rd sp
1841
1843
1845
3rd sp
1846
7th sp
1847
3rd sp
1849
1851
1853
1855
1857
1859
1868
1869
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
6th sp
1882
1883
1st sp
8th sp
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
3rd sp
1896
1898
1900
8th sp
1902
1904
5th sp
1906
1908
2nd sp
1910
1912
1914
3rd sp
8th sp
1916
1918
1919
7th sp
1920
5th sp
1921
4th sp
1922
1923
2nd sp
1924
1926
1928
3rd sp
5th sp
1930
1932
1933
8th sp
1934
1935
1st sp
1936
1938
2nd sp
1940
7th sp
1941
7th sp
1942
1943
3rd sp
1944
3rd sp
1946
1947
8th sp
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
3rd sp
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1989
3rd sp
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2013
1st sp
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
State government
State elections
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Gubernatorial elections
1819
1821
1823
1825
1827
1829
1831
1833
1835
1837
1839
1841
1843
1845
1847
1849
1851
1853
1855
1857
1859
1861
1863
1865
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1906
1910
1914
1918
1922
1926
1930
1934
1938
1942
1946
1950
1954
1958
1962
1966
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Lieutenant gubernatorial elections
2010
2014
2018
2022
Attorney General elections
2010
2014
2018
2022
State Auditor elections
2010
2014
2018
2022
State Treasurer elections
2010
2014
2018
2022
Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries elections
2010
2014
2018
2022
Supreme Court elections
2024
Public Service Commission elections
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Senate elections
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
House of Representatives elections
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026 :
Ballot measures
2000
Amendment 2
2006
Amendment 774
2020
Amendment 1
2024
Amendment 1 (November) :
Auburn
Municipal
2010
2014
2018
2022 :
Birmingham
Mayoral elections
2017
2021 :
Huntsville
Mayoral elections
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024 :
Lee County
Elections
2024 :
Mobile
Mayoral elections
2021 :
Montgomery
Mayoral elections
2007
2009 sp
2011
2015
2019
2023 :
Government :
vte :

### 20th century

The Alabama Legislature did not redraw or modify their state legislative districts from 1901 until after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1964 decision in Reynolds v. Sims, in which the court ruled that state legislative districts must be roughly equal in population.
The 1960 case in Gomillion v. Lightfoot successfully challenged racial gerrymandering in the city of Tuskegee.
The 1980 decision in Mobile v. Bolden held that disproportionate effects alone, absent purposeful discrimination, are insufficient to establish a claim of racial discrimination affecting voting and redistricting. However, after the case was remanded to lower court, subsequent litigation and legislation moved the Mobile City Council from at-large elections to single-winner districts, resulting in the election of African Americans to the city council for the first time since Reconstruction.
Despite advances in voting rights, no African American was elected to Congress from Alabama until after redistricting in 1991, in which the 7th congressional district was redrawn to encompass portions of urban Birmingham and Alabama's eastern Black Belt region. The redrawn district, now majority nonwhite, elected Earl Hilliard Sr. to the U.S. House in 1992, becoming the first Black member from Alabama since Jeramiah Haralson in 1877.

### 21st century
#### 2010s

In the 2010 election, both chambers of the legislature flipped parties, with many Democratic members switching parties, resulting in Republicans having control over redistricting for the first time in state history. In the resulting 2010 United States redistricting cycle, the legislature moved to protect Republican incumbents.
In Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial gerrymandering cases pursuant to the Voting Rights Act must be pursued on a district by district basis, rather than by looking at the state as an undifferentiated whole.

#### 2020s

After the 2020 Census and the 2020 redistricting cycle, the Alabama Legislature largely instituted the same congressional and legislative maps which have been in place since 1993. Soon after, multiple groups of plaintiffs sued, asserting the districts violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The plaintiffs sought the creation of an additional majority-minority district. In Allen v. Milligan, the court ruled 5–4 that Alabama's districts likely violated the VRA, maintained an injunction that required Alabama to create an additional majority-minority district, and held that Section 2 of the VRA is constitutional in the redistricting context.
On October 5th, 2023, a panel of three federal judges ruled that Alabama illegally diluted the Black population of southern Alabama into three separate districts, striking down the maps that were put in place a couple years ago, creating a new Black-majority district in southern Alabama, alongside the one in the north stretching from the city of Birmingham to Tuscaloosa.
In addition, a separate federal lawsuit, Thomas v. Allen. was filed against the state over Alabama's State Senate maps on the same grounds. Litigation in this case is ongoing as of January 2024.