Michael Li
As we know, among the many monumental tasks that the Legislature has before it in 2021 is redistricting. That will almost certainly be done in a summer or even autumn special session, since Census data will be delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it will happen next year, with all the usual pomp and partisan fighting that accompanies it. And as we also know from living in Texas, litigation and redistricting go together like chips and salsa. This past decade was particularly eventful for redistricting and the courts, and I wanted to have a chance to review where we are now before we embark on the next round. The best person I could think of to have this conversation with is Michael Li, Senior Counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, where his work focuses on redistricting, voting rights, and elections. I was of course a dedicated reader of his Texas Redistricting blog, and I follow him now on Twitter, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to ask him all my questions about the state of redistricting litigation:
I have a number of interviews in mind on this topic that I would like to do. I’m working on making that happen, but have no set schedule for any of it at this time. Please let me know what you think.
Friendly suggestion to Kuffner:
The Zoom H2N microphone is a simple, versatile, and easy microphone to use. It’s got all the directional recording an interviewer would need, I don’t know about recording telephone conversations but that could be handled in a simple editor. The mic can be battery powered, or USB. The sound quality is exceptional, I own two of these. For the price it would make your interviews sound more professional, which is important to those being interviewed as well, since you’re interviewing people running for public office all the time. This could get rid of that sitting in your living room sound and echo.
https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H2N-H2n-Handy-Recorder/dp/B005CQ2ZY6/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=microphone+zoom&qid=1592825132&sr=8-4
And another for Kuffner:
Audacity is an open source sound editor that is easy to learn and use. It is not too fancy, but the things it can do are invaluable, especially in a quality open source audio editor. One thing is noise removal. The ambient noise picked up in the background can be sampled and removed from a recording to give a much cleaner recording which removes distractions from the primary voice. Great, easy to use, and free. The way the internet was intended.
A link to Audacity:
https://www.audacityteam.org/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=eb1178211dd100a89b9bb5bf570dcfbc40d65f5c-1592825676-0-AaWsvJmGUjvQCc2ZaG9_FZkJdGMATso5xSHqEakSHRAUEe9mdewc4RRFPhaXZ6pNQWXhnXGw2sIds4EmWeCZm1-xHfXMJLUJhSNOcm7xTrxfHY7zD64vIccqk2l6XC0v3KWmAh3Xzp_7-M_ly2HDJyO–5xC-KCtwyEcnUg_GnpcYjgwMcKqf4iOU6OB8bBdvd0iTbR9CwrSYlXZRgqjBmWdxFzZWvJhm-A6ot44FtFdu1V-bAx0udfxcSosbZCgkVTa0tWKFNplFmJ26dQbZjBtrb0EXzKU8UTMc-n2n3LJhPE7ULUQZI_KvbT83ybbAU9qOpyHlKirpMh56uKwB3Q
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