Tag Archives: Voting Rights Act

Redistricting litigation gets underway this week

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Starting tomorrow, a three-judge panel in San Antonio will hear one of the two redistricting-related lawsuits that have been filed in Texas. I figure this is as good a time as any to review the landscape as we head into … Continue reading →

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Commissioners Court approves its redistricting plan, DOJ approves city’s plan

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Greg and Stace attended today’s Commissioners Court meeting, where to nobody’s surprise the slightly-less-but-still-retrogressive new redistricting plan was unanimously approved. And why shouldn’t it be? It took care of the main, if not the sole, purpose of the task, which … Continue reading →

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Taking aim at the Voting Rights Act

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

In responding to a petition by State Rep. Marc Veasey and State Sen. Wendy Davis to intervene against the state in its lawsuit to get the federal court to pre-clear the new maps, the Attorney General responded by saying that … Continue reading →

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Chron story on Harris County redistricting

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

County Commissioners are shocked and dismayed to learn that there are people who would question their ability to do whatever they want to do. The county released an amended map on Friday, having gathered community input on the initial map … Continue reading →

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Lawsuit filed against Harris County redistricting

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Hot off the presses, here’s a release from CM Ed Gonzalez: Today, Council Member Ed Gonzalez joined as a plaintiff in a lawsuit versus Harris County over the proposed Commissioners Court redistricting map. “The proposed map cracks communities of interests … Continue reading →

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The alternative Commissioners Court map

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Opponents of the proposed County Commissioners map have presented their version in the last public hearing on county redistricting. Democrat Sylvia Garcia was Precinct 2 commissioner from 2002 until this year, having lost to Republican Jack Morman in last November’s … Continue reading →

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Texas seeks preclearance from the courts

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

This was expected. Texas bypassed the Obama administration’s Department of Justice on Tuesday, opting to ask a panel of federal judges in Washington, D.C., to review the state’s new maps for congressional, legislative and State Board of Education districts. Attorney … Continue reading →

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A closer look at the proposed County Commissioner precincts

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Rick Casey does some analysis of the proposed Harris County redistricting map and notes some concerns about the way Precinct 2 was drawn. The total population of the proposed new precinct is 57 percent Hispanic and 31 percent Anglo. But … Continue reading →

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Veasey joins in redistricting litigation

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Add another redistricting lawsuit to the pile. Brought by state Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, the lawsuit is another attempt to get a three-judge panel hearing redistricting cases to reconsider the entire state map by focusing on how the districts … Continue reading →

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Austin presents a single-member Council map

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

The city of Austin has released the first maps of a proposed six-district City Council, which Mayor Lee Leffingwell would like to put on the ballot next year for public approval. The City of Austin has for decades operated under … Continue reading →

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Two other views of Texas redistricting

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a fascinating paper from the Harvard Election Data Archive that attempts to project how many Congressional seats each party will win based on statewide performance. Based on the 2008 presidential election results, twenty-two of the twenty-three current Republican members … Continue reading →

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Senate approves Congressional map

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

On to the House. A new redistricting map, drawn to promote and protect Republican interests in the U.S. Congress, sailed out of the GOP-led state Senate Monday. The map, predictably approved 18-12 along strict party lines, would give Republicans a … Continue reading →

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Senate map is out, controversy precedes it

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Before we had a State Senate map, we had a brawl brewing over one proposed district on it. Accusing the state Senate’s Republican leaders of a “shameful partisan attack,” Sen. Wendy Davis said Tuesday that a new redistricting map for … Continue reading →

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Time to start analyzing the new districts

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

You will no doubt be excited to hear that I now have electoral data for the new State House districts as they currently stand. My thanks to Joe Madden of the Legislative Study Group for getting all that to me. … Continue reading →

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House passes redistricting map

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

The Trib stayed up all night to see how it ended. The Texas House tentatively approved new political districts early this morning on a 92-52 vote after hours of nips and tucks that left the proposal they started with mostly … Continue reading →

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HISD redistricting on the horizon

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

This is likely to be a lot less contentious than other map-drawing exercises we’ve seen, but no redistricting exercise is ever completely bloodless. Gene Locke of Andrews Kurth told [HISD] trustees they should have a plan to submit to the … Continue reading →

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Chron story about the House redistricting map

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s what the Chron had to say about the initial redistricting map for the State House. I’m just going to focus on a couple of things: The statewide map creates one new Latino district, maintains the current number of black … Continue reading →

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Smith v. Barton on redistricting

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

From Politico: A bitter, behind-the-scenes fight has broken out among Texas Republicans over redistricting, pitting Rep. Lamar Smith against longtime colleague Rep. Joe Barton. The dispute is over the makeup of four new congressional districts for the Lone Star State, … Continue reading →

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Voter ID passes the House

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

As expected. There was a long and often contentious debate, but when you have a 2/3 majority as the Republicans currently do, you usually get what you want. Gov. Rick Perry declared the voter ID issue an emergency issue, which … Continue reading →

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The next step for voter ID

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Very likely, the courthouse. While the Democrats have little chance of stopping the bill from getting the votes to pass, this particular piece of legislation may very well be tied up in lawsuits for years. And today, Democrats can lay … Continue reading →

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More Council redistricting drama

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Greg liveblogs today’s special City Council meeting on the Census population report and Council redistricting. Read it for a blow-by-blow account of where individual Council members are standing, or which way they’re leaning, on the question. This could be a … Continue reading →

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The opening bars of the redistricting overture

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Now that we have Census data, you know what comes next. Here’s an Express News story that discusses how redistricting will be different this time around. Democrats still are smarting from the redistricting plan engineered in 2003 by then-U.S. House … Continue reading →

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Chron story on lawsuit against red light camera referendum

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron covers the story. Boosters of Houston’s 70 red-light cameras are seeking to prevent a November vote on whether to ban the devices, alleging in a federal lawsuit that the initiative was placed on the ballot illegally and that … Continue reading →

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Lawsuit filed to stop red light camera referendum

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

And now the fun really begins. A federal lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in an effort to prevent Houston residents from voting on whether to ban red-light cameras. Multiple sources told KPRC Local 2 that the lawsuit was filed on … Continue reading →

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Irving to appeal ruling in single-member districts lawsuit

Posted on July 26, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

No surprise. The Irving City Council plans to appeal last week’s federal court ruling that ordered the city to create single-member council districts before holding any more City Council elections. Mayor Herbert Gears said the city will also request that … Continue reading →

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Irving ordered to switch to single-member Council districts

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

A federal judge has ordered the city of Irving, Texas, to switch to single-member City Council districts because their current at-large system was in violation of the Voting Rights Act. U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis issued the ruling Tuesday in … Continue reading →

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Murray on the Census and redistricting

Posted on July 9, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Professor Murray follows up an earlier post on the recent Supreme Court decision that narrowly upheld the Voting Right Act and considers the redistricting implications for Texas in 2011. The most interesting bit was this: Had the Supreme Court thrown … Continue reading →

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SCOTUS upholds Voting Rights Act

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

For now, anyway. The Supreme Court ruled narrowly today in a challenge to the landmark Voting Rights Act, siding with a small Texas governing authority but sidestepping the larger constitutional issue. The court, with only one justice in dissent, avoided … Continue reading →

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Voter ID must be reviewed

Posted on April 19, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

This is generally good news, but maybe not quite as good as it sounds. Texas’ proposed Voter ID law would be subject to approval by the U.S. Department of Justice or federal court for it to become law, federal officials … Continue reading →

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Casey on City Council redistricting

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Rick Casey provides an update on the City Council redistricting lawsuit. The burning question of whether the city of Houston must immediately expand its 14-member City Council by adding two new districts in time for November’s election, or whether it … Continue reading →

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Here we go again with City Council redistricting

Posted on January 25, 2009 by Charles Kuffner

Or at least, here we go again with arguing about when we should be redrawing City Council lines. Mayor Bill White’s decision to delay redrawing the boundaries of City Council districts has angered numerous community activists, who say his stance … Continue reading →

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