Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas For Texas to comply fully with the Voting Rights Act the redistricting process must be transparent open & responsive to constituents. Instead this process has been fraught with closed-door deal-making last-minute schedule shuffling and ultimately a clear lack of regard for voters best interests" said Karen Nicholson League of Women Voters of Texas (LWV-TX) president earlier today.
A significant number of individuals and civil rights civic and community organizations testified that this map benefits lawmakers partisan interests while shortchanging minority voters diluting communities of interest & paving the way for near-certain court challenges" Nicholson said.
Nicholson was responding to the state Senate approval earlier in the week of the latest House version of the bill that draws congressional districts for Texas.
Those districts adhere admirably with the one person one vote rule but are drawn to make sure that there is little opportunity for a huge percentage of Texans to get a person of their choosing elected.
Authors of the the Congressional Redistrictin Bill had said that their every decision was designed to adhere to Section 2 and Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in order that the courts would approve the map as favorable.
However Nicholson continued Redistricting in Texas is broken. It has always been so but every redistricting brings new tools and ideas for limiting who has a chance of election in each district.
The process now used alleged the League:
- Sets legislators against each other during the legislative session when cooperation and compromise is so important to well-crafted legislation.
- Creates electoral districts that divide and weaken real communities of interest.
- Does not inspire public confidence in either the process or the outcome.
- Lacks transparency and meaningful public participation.
- Almost always leads to court challenges costing the public hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Before green-lighting the same mistakes made in past redistricting cycles lawmakers should have more fully considered alternate methods of drawing maps that would allow a better opportunity for districts that represent the interests of all Texans" Nicholson concluded.
LWV-TX testified at hearings of both the House Redistricting Committee and the Senate Select Redistricting Committee and is available for further comment upon request.
The League of Women Voters of Texas (LWV-TX) a nonpartisan political organization encourages the informed and active participation in government and influences public policy through education & advocacy.
