DOJ Says Texas County’s Redistricting Plan Denies Equal Representation To Minority Voters

Topline

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Thursday against Galveston County, Texas, alleging that its redistricting plan discriminates against Black and Hispanic voters by eliminating the only district where those voters would be able to elect a candidate of their choice, in the latest case alleging racial gerrymandering in voting maps drawn following the 2020 Census.

Key Facts

In a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the DOJ alleged that the county violated the section of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, and asked the court to block the county from conducting elections under its current map and to order the county to create a new one complying with the act.

The DOJ alleged that Galveston County, Galveston County Commissioners Court and County Judge Mark Henry intentionally excluded Commissioner Stephen Holmes, the sole minority member on the commissioners court and representative of the county’s only “minority opportunity-to-elect” district, from participating in the creation of the new map.

The county’s redistricting process was far more drastic than was required by the new Census data, entirely redrawing the county map when shifting a single voting precinct from one district to another would have been adequate, the DOJ alleged.

The complaint alleged that the county has regularly attempted to exclude Black and Hispanic voters of the past three decades, a contention supported by a 2007 district court finding that the county had violated the VRA by failing to hire an adequate number of Spanish-speaking poll officials and to provide vital election information to Spanish-speaking voters.

The Galveston County officials named as defendants in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Key Background

Galveston County is one of many legal battlegrounds in which officials and the Democratic and Republican partieshave targeted one another with accusations of gerrymandering and racial discrimination. Following the 2020 Census, critics on the left accused Republicans of attempting to cram traditionally Democratic-voting minority communities into as few districts as possible, unfairly diminishing Democrats’ chances and stifling minority voters in the process. Wednesday, the Supreme Court decided in favor of Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature, allowing it to throw out a map approved by Gov. Tony Evers (D) that would have added a new majority-Black district to the state legislature. Evers argued that adding the new district was required by the VRA, while his critics argued that the map ran afoul of the act by arbitrarily changing the districts of too many Black and Hispanic voters. February 7, the Supreme Court reversed a decision by a lower court that would have required Alabama to create new voting maps allowing greater representation for Black voters. In that case, Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued that, while the lower court’s ruling might have had merit, it would have been improper for a federal court to alter state election laws so close to an upcoming election.

Tangent

Lying along the Gulf Coast, Galveston County in 2020 was home to 350,682 people, of whom 267,382 were of voting age, according to Census Bureau figures. Of those voting-age residents, 54.6% were non-Hispanic white, 25.3% were Hispanic and 13% were non-Hispanic Black, putting the county roughly in line with racial demographics across Texas. Galveston residents are relatively affluent, reporting a median household income of $74,633 compared to $63,826 for Texas as a whole and a poverty rate of 9.9% compared to 13.4% for Texas as a whole.

Further Reading

“Supreme Court Throws Out Wisconsin Legislative Map That Added Majority-Black District” (Forbes)