With Republicans on one side and civil rights groups on the other, Texas is arguing redistricting again in Federal Court. The results could shake up the state’s 36 congressional seats.
It’s a new election cycle but it’s the same old challenge — is Republican-controlled Texas drawing an election map that underrepresents minority voters?
Michael Li is an election attorney who runs the non-partisan blog txredistricting.org.
“About 90 percent of the state’s population gain over the last decade was either African-American or Latino and 66 percent of that was Latino,” Li said.
But Latino civil rights groups argue their growth isn’t reflected in the maps — a charge the Republican State leaders who drew the map deny.
The federal judges are unlikely to decide until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a different case that challenges the Voting Rights Act.
