INSTITUTE INDEX: N.C. special election shows the high cost of racial gerrymandering

Date of North Carolina's special congressional primary election, scheduled after the federal courts ruled the district maps created by the Republican-controlled legislature were racially gerrymandered and had to be redrawn: 6/7/2016

Cost of the additional election, for which early voting ends June 4, and where a state Supreme Court seat will also be on the ballot due to the court's rejection of a legislative attempt to protect its conservative majority: $9.5 million

Number of new teachers that could have been hired with that money: 270

Number of new textbooks that money could have purchased for the state's students: 300,000

Percent turnout for the regular primary North Carolina held in March: 35

Percent turnout predicted for the special primary election: 4 to 6

In the run-up to the regular primary election that was held March 15, number of early voting sites offered by Wake County, home to the state capital of Raleigh: 9

Number of such sites Wake County is offering in the run-up to the special election: 3

Number of candidates running in North Carolina's new 13th Congressional District, where there is no incumbent: 22

Number of those candidates who are Republicans: 17

Under new rules adopted by the legislature that do away with runoffs and allow congressional races to be won with a plurality of votes, estimated number of votes that could be enough to win the congressional primary in the GOP-leaning 13th District: 5,700

Year in which a bill was introduced in North Carolina's General Assembly to establish an independent redistricting commission that would take drawing electoral district lines out of the legislature's hands: 2015

Number of sponsors from both parties the measure now has: 63

Number of states that have independent redistricting commissions: 13

Of those 13 states, number in the South: 1*

* Arkansas.

(Click on figure to go to source. Research assistance by Rebekah Barber.)