This year’s bout of March Madness has come to an end, culminating with the Tar Heels’ thrilling run to the national championship. Like most years, these contests were marked by intense competition, shocking upsets and last-second victories.

But if college basketball were like North Carolina’s elections, half of this year’s tournament games would have been decided before a single point was scored.

Case in point: last fall, almost 50 percent of all NC legislative races had just one name on the ballot, determining the outcome of these elections before a single ballot was cast. In turn, millions of North Carolinians were deprived of a say in who would represent them in Raleigh.

The root cause for the lack of competition in our elections is “gerrymandering,” a 200-year-old word that refers to the practice of partisan politicians drawing voting districts to unfairly favor their own party.

The Constitution requires our voting districts to be redrawn once every 10 years so as to correct for population changes reflected in the latest U.S. Census. But while some other states give redistricting power to an independent body, North Carolina’s voting maps are crafted by the legislature – the very politicians whose future elections will be directly impacted by the winding lines.

It’s a clear conflict of interest and the result are districts so heavily skewed in favor of one party that potential candidates from the opposing party don’t even bother to run, leaving voters with no choice in our elections.

But there is reason for hope that North Carolina can finally move beyond gerrymandering and enact a redistricting process that puts voters ahead of partisan politics. Just last month, a bipartisan group of North Carolina lawmakers introduced House Bill 200, which would give our state fair voting maps and fair elections.

Under that proposal, redistricting authority would be taken out of the hands of partisan legislators and given to nonpartisan legislative staff that would create congressional and legislative maps completely blind of any political consideration.

While HB200 has bipartisan support in the NC House, it will take citizens across the state standing up and speaking out for legislative leaders to take note and take action on the bill.

Here are five things you can do to help pass House Bill 200 and end gerrymandering in North Carolina:

1) Contact your state lawmakers and urge them to support House Bill 200. Then ask your friends to call, write or email their lawmakers as well. You can find the contact information for your legislators by visiting the NC General Assembly’s website at NCleg.net and clicking the link for “Who Represents Me?” at the top of the page.

2) Join the thousands of North Carolina citizens that have signed the petition to end gerrymandering at EndGerrymanderingNow.org.

3) Organize a district meeting in your hometown with your state lawmakers to discuss nonpartisan redistricting. Invite your friends and neighbors to attend.

4) Spread the word on social media about HB200 or write a letter to the editor of your hometown newspaper sharing your views on gerrymandering.

5) Ask your local government to join the dozen towns and cities throughout the state that have passed resolutions calling on the legislature to enact nonpartisan redistricting.

When politicians play partisan games with our voting maps, citizens lose. It’s time to score a victory for democracy. Let’s tell lawmakers that we demand an end to gerrymandering once and for all in North Carolina.

Bryan Warner is a member of Common Cause NC, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging citizen participation in democracy. More information is available at CommonCauseNC.org.

Bryan Warner

Columnist