GOP Governor Greg Abbott affixed his signature to the redrawing of voting maps. This paves a safe route for the Republican majority. The only hope left for opponents is the courts that could stop the gerrymandered districts a year before they enter the 2022 Texas gubernatorial elections.
A spokesperson announced that Greg Abbott passed the maps on Monday though the office refused to make any further declaration.
Civil rights bodies have, in the meantime, filed several federal lawsuits. The GOP stands accused of disfranchising Black and Hispanic residents. Greg Abbott’s state has added 4M residents in the last 10 years. but the Republicans have included no districts where the Latinos are a majority.
It has been a highly volatile year over Texas voting rights. Democrats began a holdout protesting the sweeping election overhaul.
Democratic Representative Rafael Anchia (Dallas) said that the courts were the only chance of justice for color communities in Texas.
Greg Abbott’s Signature Will Help The Republicans Draw The State Along Politically Convenient Lines
The once-a-decade process of redistricting is meant to help lawmakers sort the 30M residents of Texas into new political districts. The signed maps also decide who gets elected and represents them. Texas under Greg Abbott is the lone state to be awarded an extra two congressional seats according to the census of 2020. This increases the already strong political clout of the state.
The Mexican American Legislative Caucus has sought the documents over the map-drawing process and the names of who had a say in its final drawing. Other voting advocacy and minority groups have filed separate lawsuits backed by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. They have approached a federal court challenging the redrawn maps.
Census figures reveal that every 9 out of 10 additions to the state in the past decade have been colored people.
Greg Abbott and the Republican camp have justified the redrawn maps. They contend that race has not come into play in redrawing the maps. Senator Joan Huffman, the leader of the Redistricting Committee and the author of the maps told other lawmakers that the gerrymandering was drawn blind. She was indicating that color and race did not come into play during the decision.
In a first, the Supreme Court has ruled that states that had a history of racial discrimination such as Texas no longer need to have their maps scrutinized by the Justice Department before their approval. The Supreme Court is at present dominated overwhelmingly by Republican-sponsored judges by a 6-3 majority.