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North Carolina Republicans are well positioned to pick up at least two House seats in next year’s election – but it’s not because the state is getting “redder”.

The state remains a perennial battleground, closely split between Democrats and Republicans in elections. But, last week, the GOP-controlled legislature finalized maps that redraw congressional district boundaries, dividing up Democratic voters in cities to dilute their votes.

The new plan took the number of GOP-leaning districts from eight to 10 in the state. Republicans even have a shot at winning an eleventh.

North Carolina’s plan drew instant criticism for its aggressive approach, but it’s hardly alone.

Experts and lawmakers tracking the once-a-decade redistricting process see a cycle of supercharged gerrymandering.

With fewer legal restraints and amped up political stakes, both Democrats and Republicans are pushing the bounds of the tactic long used to draw districts for maximum partisan advantage, often at the expense of community unity or racial representation.

“In the absence of reforms, the gerrymandering in general has gotten even worse than 2010, than in the last round” of redistricting, said Chris Warshaw, a political scientist at George Washington University who has analyzed decades of redistricting maps in U.S. states.

Republicans dominated redistricting last decade, helping them build a greater political advantage in more states than either party had in the past 50 years.

Republicans’ potential net gain of three seats in North Carolina could be fully canceled out in Illinois, where Democrats control the legislature.

In the 13 states that have passed new congressional maps so far, the cumulative effect is essentially a wash for Republicans and Democrats, leaving just a few toss-up districts.

That could change in the coming weeks, as Republican-controlled legislatures consider proposed maps in Georgia, New Hampshire and Ohio that target Democratic-held seats.

“Across the board you are seeing Republicans gerrymander,” said Kelly Ward Burton, executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which oversees redistricting for the Democratic Party.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who leads the Democrats’ effort, has called for more states to use redistricting commissions.

In Maryland, Democrats are considering a proposal that would make it easier for a Democrat to oust the state’s only Republican congressman.

Newly passed congressional maps in Indiana, Arkansas and Alabama all maintain an existing Republican advantage.