Special Master Richard Allen submitted three proposed Alabama congressional district maps to a three-judge federal district court on Monday, the deadline set by the court.

In a report to the court, Allen said all three maps provide two districts where Black voters have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice, as instructed by the court.

The proposed maps are intended to replace the map passed by the Legislature in July. The court ruled that the Legislature’s map did not fix the dilution of Black voters and said it likely violated the Voting Rights Act. The Legislature’s map left District 7 in west Alabama as the only majority Black district out of seven in a state where one-fourth of residents are Black.

On Allen’s three maps, drawn by court-appointed cartographer David Ely, District 2 is the second opportunity district.

District 2 has a Black voting age population of 50.1% on Remedial Plan 1, 48.5% on Remedial Plan 2, and 48.7% on Remedial Plan 3.

Allen’s report includes an election analysis to show District 2 is an opportunity district for Black voters. It shows that the Black-preferred candidate would have won in 15 of 17 elections in District 2 under Remedial Plan 1, in 13 of 17 under Remedial Plan 2, and in 16 of 17 under Remedial Plan 3.

In District 7, the Black-preferred candidate would have won all 17 elections by an average margin of 29% on all three remedial plans.

Parties in the case have three days to file objections to the court’s maps. The judges have scheduled a hearing for Oct. 3.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the state have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay blocking the three-judge court’s order. The state’s lawyers, led by Attorney General Steve Marshall and Solicitor General Edmund LaCour, say the map approved by the Legislature in July complies with the Voting Rights Act.

The state’s lawyers said the Legislature’s map followed redistricting principles, such as compactness, keeping communities of interest whole to the extent possible, and minimizing county line splits.

The Legislature’s map raised the Black voting age population in District 2 from 30% to 40%. The state’s lawyers said that was the most that could be done to create an opportunity district for Black voters without resorting to what they said would be unlawful racial gerrymandering.

Allen, in his report on his three proposed maps, summarized the criteria he used.

“In evaluating plans suggested by the parties and interested non-parties, as well as the three plans he is now recommending to the Court, the Special Master sought to ensure compliance with the first three criteria set out in the Court’s order: that the plan (1) completely remedies the likely Section Two violation; (2) complies with one-person, one-vote principles, as evidenced by population equality; and (3) otherwise complies with the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act.

“The Special Master analyzed the overlap of proposed plan districts with the districts in the Legislature’s 2023 Plan to verify that any changes were necessary to comply with the Court’s order to provide a complete remedy. The Special Master also considered other traditional redistricting criteria—in particular compactness, contiguity, respect for political subdivisions, and maintenance of communities of interest.”

Allen is a former Alabama chief deputy attorney general under four Republican attorneys general.

Allen’s report said Remedial Plan 1 is a variation of a plan proposed by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, with modest changes. Allen said Remedial Plan 2 is a modification of Plan 1.

Allen said Ely drew Remedial Plan 3 with referencing any of the illustrative or suggested plans proposed by the parties in the litigation.

The dispute that started two years ago, when the Legislature drew a new map, as required after every census. Organizations and Black voters filed lawsuits challenging the map.

The key issue is whether Alabama’s congressional map, with one majority Black district out of seven, dilutes the influence of Black voters in a state where one-fourth of residents are Black.

The three-judge court ruled in January 2022 that a map passed by the GOP-led Legislature in 2021 likely violated the Voting Rights Act.

The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that decision in June 2023, sending the case back to the three-judge court.

In a special session in July, Republican lawmakers approved a new map over the objections of Democrats.

The new map made substantial changes but left District 7 in west Alabama as the only majority Black district. The three-judge court, which held a hearing August 14, found that legislators failed to follow the court’s guidance to create a second majority Black district or one close to majority Black, a district where Black voters would have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, issued a statement Monday night in support of the special master’s proposed maps.

“The three remedial plans submitted to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama by the Special Master represent a chance to restore the power of the vote for Black Alabamians, and all Alabamians,” Daniels said. “All three maps place the majority of the City of Mobile in a proposed Congressional District 2. This is a clear rejection of the State’s attempts at subversion, and a rebuke of the manner in which the legislative majority twisted our shared history into a shield for discrimination.

“Fair elections begin with fair maps. There was never a good or defensible reason that Black voters – who represent 27% of Alabama’s population – had only 14% representation in Congress.”