Will Tyrrell County be affected by the latest challenge to the state’s newly redrawn congressional voting districts? 

Before adjourning in late June, the U.S. Supreme Court agree to hear arguments next fall in McCrory v. Harris, a lawsuit contending that North Carolina’s new districts are discriminatory.

The principal question is, Did lawmakers place too much emphasis on race when they redrew the state’s congressional district lines?

After a federal court ruled that the First and Twelfth districts were unfairly drawn — a decision the Supreme Court let stand last February — state lawmakers scrambled to adjust the congressional district map, resulting in an unusual June 7 primary for the state’s 13 U.S. House races.

Federal law requires that districts have, as nearly as possible, equal population, based on the most recent federal census. This insistence on numerical equality has caused some counties to be split between neighboring districts. Each of the 435 congressional districts in the United States averages 710,767 inhabitants.

The lines drawn for the June 7 primary removed the Pea Ridge and Creswell areas in Washington County from the Third District and placed the entire county in the First District. Tyrrell County remained in the Third District.

Opponents argue that the newly drawn lines concentrate too many black voters into districts that were already electing black representatives, in an attempt to dilute the minority vote impact in neighboring districts.

Lawmakers responsible for drawing the maps and their attorneys argue that the federal court’s perspective muddles lawmakers’ efforts to balance racial and party demographics, the Voting Rights Act, the Fourteenth Amendment, and claims of gerrymandering.

If the Supreme Court orders a subsequent redrawing of the lines, some or all of Tyrrell County could be placed in the First District in exchange for territory elsewhere going to the Third District.

The First District is represented by Democrat G. K. Butterfield of Wilson. He was unopposed in the June 7 primary but has three challengers in the general election — Republican, Libertarian and unaffiliated.

Third District Congressman Walter B. Jones of Farmville, Republican, won out over two challengers on June 7 and faces Democratic opposition in November.