RALEIGH, N.C. – Redistricting is a process that is supposed to happen once every 10 years, after a nationwide census is done.

The goal is to redraw voting districts according to the growth, decline or movement in populations.

       What You Need To Know

  • Redistricting is meant to happen once a decade, but the 2024 election will have different voting maps from the 2022 elections

  • The N.C. Supreme Court overturned a previous ruling dealing with racial gerrymandering

  • Shruti Parikh was moved to another state legislative district without changing addresses

But throughout the last decade, North Carolinians have seen several different maps, changing their representation and district groupings.

Now, just two years after the last redistricting cycle, the state Legislature is gathering to draw maps again.

In 2022, the maps were deemed racially gerrymandered by courts, and temporary maps were put in place for the 2022 election.

A court order earlier this year reversed the ruling, allowing the Republican-led legislature to redraw the maps for the state House, state Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

Legislators held three hearings across the state this week to hear from residents about what is important to them in this redistricting cycle.

One of the people who attended the Wednesday meeting in Raleigh and who is keeping an eye on this is Shruti Parikh.

Parikh is the head of education and political engagement for North Carolina Asian Americans Together.

She’s paying attention for a few reasons.

She wants to be able to give people the best and latest information when it comes to voting and who will be on their ballot.

She’s also wants to make sure she knows who will be on her ballot come the next election.

Despite living in the same home for 27 years, Parikh found herself in a new voting district in the redrawing of the maps.

Her representation in both the state House and Senate changed.

“I did have a situation where I pulled out my sample ballot and realized that my district had changed,” Parikh said. “So if I had not pulled out the sample ballot and taken a look at it before I went to vote — and I also did that to help other people in my neighborhood who had asked me what a sample ballot looked like — I would have gone to the ballot and not recognized the names.”

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As the primary election is less than six months away, many people might be in the same boat when they head to vote if they aren’t paying attention.

“You can imagine if it’s confusing for me, how confusing it would be for the average citizen who doesn't have the insight into the redistricting process that I have,” Parikh said.

That’s one reason she’s speaking out.

She wants to make sure that this redistricting process is open, and that legislators take the time to think about who should be in the same district.

It shouldn’t be a case of elected officials picking their voters, Parikh says.

“We've got communities of interest, people that go to the same church or attend the same school may want to, you know, they have similar values and similar needs, and they should be kept together."

State Senate leader Phil Berger has said he hoped votes on a congressional map would occur the week of Oct. 9, with votes on General Assembly lines later in the month.

Republicans hold comfortable seat majorities in both the House and Senate, so whatever lines are supported by the overwhelming number of them will be enacted. Redistricting legislation isn't subject to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto.