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Allison Riggs

Interim Executive Director / Chief Counsel, Voting Rights
allisonriggs@scsj.org

Allison Riggs leads the voting rights program at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, an organization she joined in 2009.  In March of 2020, she also took over as Interim Executive Director of the organization.

Her voting rights work over the last decade at SCSJ has been focused on fighting for fair redistricting plans, fighting against voter suppression, and advocating for electoral reforms that would expand access to voting.

She has litigated redistricting cases on behalf of State NAACP Conferences in Texas, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina. In 2018, she argued the Texas redistricting case in the United States Supreme Court, and in 2019, she argued the North Carolina partisan gerrymandering case in the Supreme Court.  Allison works closely with grassroots organizations and communities of color as they seek to advance their political and civil rights.  She received her undergraduate, Master’s Degree and J.D. from the University of Florida.

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Partnering with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the south to defend and advance their political, social and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing and communications.

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Raleigh Wake Citizens Association v. Wake County Board of Elections

Focus Area: Voting RightsFiled in: North Carolina
Last Updated: Mar 4, 2019Case Status: Closed

After the North Carolina General Assembly passed a local bill in 2013 redistricting the Wake County Board of Education and Board of County Commissioners, SCSJ filed two lawsuits in federal court challenging the redistricting on the ground that it violated the one-person, one-vote principle. The Fourth Circuit found the challenged plans to be unconstitutional, and ordered that a remedy be put in place by the 2016 general election. In November 2016, the nine members of the School Board were elected under the districts that existed before the unconstitutional local bill was enacted in 2013. The three members of the seven-member Board of County Commissioners who were up for election in 2016 were elected to two-year terms pursuant to the prior at-large plan. After the General Assembly did not develop a remedial plan during the 2017 session, we negotiated a consent decree with the Defendant.

Related Files & Resources

August 2013 Complaint – Filed 08/22/2013
April 2015 Complaint – Filed 04/09/2015
July 2016 4th Circuit Opinion – Filed 07/01/2016

Related Media

Wake Voters Sue over New County Commission Districts (04/09/2015)
Redistricting of Wake County Board of Commissioners and Board of Education Ruled Unconstitutional (07/05/2016)
Courts Will Not Consider Unconstitutional Election Map Ruling in Wake County (07/27/2016)
Judge Orders Remedial Actions in Wake County Redistricting Case (08/09/2016)

Key Contact

Allison Riggs, Interim Executive Director / Chief Counsel, Voting Rights
allisonriggs@scsj.org

Last Updated: March 4, 2019

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