Redistricting Texas Part 1

Possibly the most important piece of business that the state legislature will address when it convenes in January is redistricting since the decennial census results will be distributed early next year. If the election results have been good to Democrats in the state house; 2021 will be the first opportunity Democrats have had in more than 20 years to have some say in how state senate, state house, and congressional districts are drawn and more important the process that draws those districts.

Once each state has been allocated its congressional seats state legislatures or other state based bodies are required to draw lines for each congressional district which are required to contain the same number of residents in each district plus or minus a small percentage. Notice I said residents, not voters or citizens. The constitution says in Article I, section 2, clause 3 “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed." As the population of Texas has grown substantially over the last decade while some state have been stagnant or seen declines we’re likely to gain 3 more congressional districts.

Gerrymandering refers to drawing districts in such a way that it favors one party or group of people over another. There are two types: racial and partisan. Racial gerrymandering was outlawed by enactment of the VRA in 1964. Partisan gerrymandering is still allowed. The problem is that race and partisanship often go hand in hand, in other words elections are racially polarized in our state. White people usually vote one way, and minority groups will vote the other. This means that partisan gerrymandering easily turns into racial gerrymandering. And, Texas is a repeat offender when it comes to discriminating against minority groups in our election maps, and both the Democrats and Republicans have been found guilty. Partisan gerrymandering has been ingrained in our political system since our country’s founding. In 1812 the Boston Gazette published a story on such redistricting using an illustration of a salamander and referring to a beneficiary, Elbridge Gerry, naming it gerrymander.

We live in Congressional District 15 which is around 287 miles north to south and State Senate District 21 at around 221 miles end to end. Then there’s Congressional District 35 running from south Austin to east San Antonio through a narrow strip on 1-35 that often contains nothing but the highway. All these districts are drawn to pack Democratic voters in the fewest possible districts so that more districts can be drawn with Republican majorities, it’s called packing.

Packing is when a political party concentrates opposition party’s voters into a few districts in order to reduce the opposition’s voting power. This creates districts that are heavily in favor of the opposition’s party, reducing that party’s representation in other districts.

Cracking is when a party dilutes supporters of the opposing party by spreading them across many districts. This denies the opposition’s supporters a chance to have group representation in their district.

Gerrymandering is about politicians picking their constituents rather than constituents picking their elected officials. Since politicians routinely abuse the process voters in some states have taken the process out of their hands. Both parties in Texas have gerrymandered districts when in power and have suffered it when not in power. Now might be a good time for both parties to consider creating a non-partisan process so they’ll never be on the short end of the stick again. I’ll talk more about this next week.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 4, 2020