Redistricting maps to stay same for 2016

No ‘interruption or delay’ in Texas’ March primaries

AUSTIN — Texas’ political maps won’t change for the 2016 elections, a federal court has ruled in a decision intended to provide certainty for candidates, election officials and voters ahead of the upcoming cycle.

A three-judge panel in San Antonio on Friday rejected a motion to temporarily block a set of redistricting maps passed by the Legislature in 2013 for Congress and the Texas House.

Litigation on the maps remains pending, as civil rights groups say they discriminate against minorities. The three-judge panel said it has not reached a final decision and that the current boundaries are being “used on an interim basis only.”

However, the court made clear it has no intention to tweak the maps before the coming March primaries — a move that will avoid a repeat of 2012 when redistricting map litigation threw the election cycle into disarray and caused the primaries to be delayed from March to May.

The ruling eases fears of Texas getting bumped from the “Super Tuesday” slate of March primaries.

“The 2016 elections will proceed as scheduled, without interruption or delay,” the court wrote.

Political boundaries passed by the Legislature in 2011 reshaped voting districts for Congress and the state House and Senate but were never implemented after a federal court in Washington ruled they discriminate against minorities.

Those maps were replaced by court-drawn boundaries in 2012 intended to serve as a temporary fix, but the Legislature adopted them, with only slight changes, as permanent maps the next year during a special session. The maps have been used for the last two election cycles.

State Senate boundaries have been settled in court, but political maps for congressional and state House districts drawn in 2011 and 2013 remain under litigation.

Civil rights groups, anxiously awaiting a decision, filed a motion in mid-October to block the 2013 maps from being used in the upcoming election cycle, arguing there was still enough time for the court to act to implement new districts for 2016.

The state, in its filings, said the 2016 cycle had already started, and it was too late for the court to fiddle with the maps. The filing period for precinct chairs opened last month, and the filing period for candidates starts next week.

In its seven-page order, the court said it needed to weigh its obligation to protect voting rights that could be affected by the 2013 maps against “the need to avoid the adverse effect on voting rights that comes with delay and confusion during election time.”