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Redistricting

Official Texas Redistricting site and location of DistrictViewer where you can see the proposed maps: http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/redist/redist.htm

Court Review of Redistricting Necessitates Primary Delay

Redistricting is scheduled to take effect in 2012, but the redistricting maps passed by the Legislature for the Texas House, Texas Senate, and Congressional districts in Texas have not yet received the federal approval required to take effect. The DC District Court has scheduled a trial on the Texas request for preclearace of the Legislature's redistricting maps to begin January 17.

Several groups have challenged the redistricting maps in consolidated cases being heard by the federal court in San Antonio. Because the Legislature's maps have not been precleared, the San Antonio court drew interim maps so that primary elections could proceed on schedule. The State of Texas then appealed the interim maps to the US Supreme Court, which scheduled oral argument for January 9, 2012. To allow time for Supreme Court review, the new schedule for primary elections worked out by the Republican and Democratic parties in Texas was ordered by the San Antonio Court.

The following is adapted from http://txredistricting.org, a website tracking aspects of Texas Redistricting and maintained by Michael Li.

The Schedule Agreed to by the Republican and Democratic Parties and Ordered by the San Antonio Court

February 1, 6:00 p.m. - Filing deadline for all offices
February 3 - Deadline for county parties to conduct drawing for ballot order
March 5 - Deadline to register to vote for the Primary
April 3 - Primary Election
April 14 or April 21 - County and Senatorial District Conventions; the date will be determined by the State Chair of each political party.
June 5 - Primary Runoff Election

Answers to a few questions about the new election schedule

How likely is this schedule to hold?

This depends on the how quickly the Supreme Court decision comes down. Depending on the ruling, interim maps may need to be redrawn and precinct boundaries may need adjustments. As a practical matter, maps would need to be in place by the last days of January.

There is probably some flexibility in the schedule with respect to the early dates, but if the delay is beyond early February, the court would have to revisit the election schedule.

The challenges with adjusting the schedule include Easter week observances, municipal elections on May 12 in much of Texas (and early voting April 30-May 8), and both the Democratic and Republican state conventions scheduled for early June.

Is there any possibility the presidential primary still could be on March 6 if there is a hold up?

No, the deadline to send out overseas ballots for a March 6 election will have passed before a hold up is known.

Doesn’t there have to be a ruling in the preclearance case before maps can be drawn?

No. Interim maps are needed to keep to the election schedule agreed to by the parties unless the D. C. court rules on preclearance earlier than expected.

If the D.C. court rules on preclearance before interim maps are in place, interim maps would be unnecessary. The San Antonio court would then draw permanent remedial maps addressing whatever violations the D.C. court finds and any issues found in the case tried in San Antonio.

The San Antonio Federal Court has released temporary district maps for the Texas House (PLANH298) and Senate (PLANS163) and are likely to release the map for the Texas districts of the US Congress very soon. These maps will be in use for at least the 2012 elections. You can access these maps through District Viewer at http://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us/. Select Plans, the Base Plan, House or Senate and then all and look towards the bottom of the list. We’ll add the direct links to our redistricting web site as soon as they are available.

Temporary redistricting plans issued by the San Antonio US district court:

PLANC220 ?COURT-ORDERED INTERIM CONGRESSIONAL PLAN
PLANS164 ?COURT-ORDERED INTERIM SENATE PLAN
PLANH302 ?COURT-ORDERED INTERIM HOUSE PLAN

Redistricting plans enacted by the 82nd Legislature, 2011:

PlanC185 ?Texas Congressional Districts
PlanS148 ?Texas Senate Districts
PlanH283 ?Texas House of Representatives Districts
PlanH283 ?Texas State Board of Education Districts

May 14, 2011 LWV-Dallas Redistricting Town Hall Meeting. Click Here to hear keynote speaker Dr. Ruth Morgan and panelists Libbie Terrell Lee and Jessie Garcia.

April 27, 2011 LWV-Austin Area Redistricting Town Hall Meeting. Click Here to hear panelists Dave Richards, Deece Eckstein, Luis Figueroa and Nelson Linder.

You can go to this URL: http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/redist/redist.htm and in the middle of the "Announcements" box you can see "DistrictViewer". Click on that. Then under the "er" of DistrictViewer pull down "Select Plan". Select "Base Plan". The entries in pale blue are current plans. The black ones are proposed plans. Some are by legislator but others are just interested individuals.

You can easily identify types of maps:

PLANC maps show Congressional districts.
PLANS maps show Texas Senate districts.
PLANH maps show Texas House districts.
PLANE maps show State Board of Education.

Statistical Reports, more are available in DistrictViewer:

SBOE:

Texas US Congress Districts:

Texas House Districts:

Texas Senate Districts:

Want to try districting yourself? Try The ReDistricting Game at http://www.redistrictinggame.org/.