Voter rights case may complicate ’18 election
Ongoing litigation strikes concern for disruption of the 2018 primaries
Voter rights in Texas becomes a game of chicken as federal court rulings that the state intentionally discriminated with its political maps threaten to upend the 2018 elections calendar while the state appeals.
AUSTIN — With two federal courts again blasting Texas for “intentional discrimination” against blacks and Hispanics in drawing political boundaries, concern is mounting that voter-rights litigation could upend the state’s 2018 election calendar.
State officials insisted recently that they expect to stop the court challenges on appeal and reverse Texas’ losing streak on the votingrights lawsuits. Legal experts predicted Texas could end up back under federal supervision of its election rules if the appeals fail.
In short, the fight is becoming a political game of chicken, with significant consequences no matter how it turns out.
“In both of the cases where there are new decisions, the courts have ruled that Texas has purposefully maintained ‘intentional discrimination’ in the way it drew its maps,” said Michael Li, an expert on Texas redistricting who is senior counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
“That’s an important finding that could result in Texas being placed back under preclearance coverage. Based on that, there may be a good chance that could happen.”
While other legal experts and political scientists agree, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton insist that the state will win the cases on appeal — so Texas voting can proceed uninterrupted through the March primaries.
“These issues (in the congressional redistricting case) have been ruled on previously, and we won at the Supreme Court,” explained Abbott, who litigated the case for the state when he was attorney general. “We anticipate winning on appeal.”
The Aug. 24 decision by a three-judge panel in San Antonio that nine House districts in Dallas, Nueces, Bell and Tarrant counties were drawn intentionally to dilute the strength of black and Hispanic voters marked the state’s fourth court loss on voting rights in nine days.
The San Antonio decision said that in some cases the Legislature also went so far as “to ensure Anglo control” of some legislative dis-
tricts — a legal misstep that would violate federal law.
But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Aug. 22 put on hold the decision, giving the state a legal win in the long-running case, even as plaintiffs in the case have promised to continue pursuing their challenge. The appeals court is to hear arguments from both sides in December, just three months before Texas’ primaries are to take place.
‘Horribly commonplace’
Earlier rulings questioned the legality of two districts on Texas’ congressional map, of a voting law restricting language interpretation access at polls and of an Aug. 23 decision by a Corpus Christ federal judge invalidating the state’s new voter ID law as discriminatory.
In that decision, U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos invalidated the voter ID law but went farther, implying that renewed federal supervision of Texas voting laws may be necessary, the process called preclearance that Texas has not been under since 2013.
If Texas comes back under federal supervision, it would be the first state to be brought back under federal say-so since a federal court removed the restrictions in an Alabama case.
The prolonged legal battle over the redistricting maps has cost Texas taxpayers upward of $3.9 million, a sum that doesn’t include any costs incurred since mid-2014, when the sum was tallied.
“Rulings by federal courts that Texas Republican leaders have adopted and defended intentionally discriminatory and redistricting laws has become horribly commonplace . ... It is a fact established over and over again by federal judges appointed from both parties,” said Matt Angle, a veteran Democratic Party political strategist in Texas.
Prolonged litigation
While the Republican leadership has repeatedly denied those accusations, insisting that the state’s new voter ID law and redistricting maps pass federal muster, they remain hopeful the prolonged litigation that has gone on for six years will not continue until the next redistricting process starts in 2021.
Paxton has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the lower-court decision on Texas’ congressional maps. “We are confident that the Supreme Court will allow Texas to continue to use the maps used in the last three election cycles,” he said.
Even so, until that appeal is decided, “we don’t expect or anticipate any delay in the Texas election schedule,” said Marc Rylander, Paxton’s communications director.
Li and other legal experts are not so sure.
First, an appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn Aug. 24’s ruling by the three-judge panel will almost certainly not be decided until after the filing period in November and December for House seats is over.
And if appellate court rulings in other cases go against the state, the schedule could be upended by court orders to redraw political boundaries for candidates running in those elections. And any boundary changes to benefit blacks and Hispanics could mean gains for Democrats, whom those groups traditionally vote for.
“There’s a good chance that, given the way these cases stand with the courts, that the primary election schedule could be affected,” Li said.
“If the district maps have to be redrawn, that will have a cascade effect, especially with the state House maps where changing the lines may affect surrounding districts. It’s like shifting around in a conference room with too many people. ... You may have to put some in another room,” he said.
Lawmakers in the House — as well as political consultants whose candidates are running in the nine contested districts — recently huddled to determine worst-case scenarios if the map lines have to be redrawn. They also wondered how new lines, and perhaps new members, might affect the seemingly assured re-election of House Speaker Joe Straus.
Jerry Polinard, a political scientist at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley who has studied Texas redistricting for decades, said that since state officials have turned back suggestions to hold a special legislative session to resolve the map issues, revised maps will have to be drawn if the state’s appeal fails.
“This is just the gift that keeps on giving because there is the potential for major consequences on down the road,” he said. “Texas has had more voterrights litigation than other states ... and these cases will be watched closely because among the issues is partisan gerrymandering that’s being raised in Republicancontrolled states.”
‘Voter suppression’
At the same time partisanship is targeted in the court challenges, Republicans and Democrats are paying more attention to local nonpartisan elections for school boards and municipal offices, which they see as training grounds for future state leaders. Both parties have plans to endorse and support candidates for the first time.
Amid the continuing political squabbles over voting rights and redistricting, Democrats blame the GOP leadership with using redistricting and the new voter ID law to continue “state-sponsored voter suppression” and a return to election discrimination of the 1950s, labels that Republicans reject as inaccurate invective.
“We hope the primaries next spring are not delayed, but already the sign-ups for precinct chairmen are being delayed, and the counties need the district maps by October,” said Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party.
“The state’s legal strategy for these discriminatory redistricting and voter ID laws has failed so far in the courts, and we believe it will fail again.”
Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa called the ruling a “historic victory for the sacred voting rights of all Texans” and urged state officials to quickly remedy the issues.
“Once again, Texas Republicans didn’t just cheat to win a silly game, they used Jim Crow-era tactics to rig our election system,” Hinojosa said. “Make no mistake, Republicans have stolen the voice of Texans at the ballot box for years.”
Like the state’s top GOP leaders, Republican Party of Texas Chairman James Dickey disagrees.
“We oppose any identification of citizens by race, origin or creed and oppose use of any such identificationforpurposesofcreating voting districts,” he said. “If lawmakers are forced to redraw these House districts, we ask that they be drawn accordingly.”