An Associated Press analysis shows North Carolina's congressional and state House districts are among the most Republican-skewed in the country despite voter preferences that are relatively evenly split.
The AP calculated the partisan advantage for North Carolina Republicans in the 2016 state and federal House races through a new statistical tool that's designed to detect cases in which a political party maintained or increased its grip on power through how it drew voting districts.
The measurement, known as the "efficiency gap," has separately gained attention as a key argument in a pending Supreme Court case from Wisconsin that alleges partisan gerrymandering.
But North Carolina Republicans argue that it shouldn't be used as a legal standard and question whether a single formula can be used to analyze elections around the country.
