Showing posts with label 2012 texas redistricting maps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2012 texas redistricting maps. Show all posts

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Voting Rights Act vs. Texas in Supreme Court Over Voter ID and Redistricting - Section 5 Unconstitutional

A Washington D.C. Court has ruled against a Texas Voter ID Law and has also ruled against the latest Texas Redistricting Maps. The rulings are a result of Obama's DOJ leader Eric Holder's unconstitutional, race based attacks against Republican led Texas. These rulings are really just formalities that bring us one step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court striking down section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

With the Supreme Court already set to hear a challenge to the Voting Rights Act this year in a case out of Alabama, this challenge from Texas is more ammo needed to get the Supreme Court to declare parts of the Voting Rights act as unconstitutional.

Below you will find reactions from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Below you will also find my explanation of why section 5 of the Voting Rights act is unconstitutional and should be struck down.


Attorney General Greg Abbott:


“The Supreme Court of the United States has already upheld Voter ID laws as a constitutional method of ensuring integrity at the ballot box. Today’s decision is wrong on the law and improperly prevents Texas from implementing the same type of ballot integrity safeguards that are employed by Georgia and Indiana – and were upheld by the Supreme Court. The State will appeal this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, where we are confident we will prevail.”


Governor Rick Perry
:


“Chalk up another victory for fraud. Today, federal judges subverted the will of the people of Texas and undermined our effort to ensure fair and accurate elections. The Obama Administration’s claim that it’s a burden to present a photo ID to vote simply defies common sense. I will continue to work with Attorney General Abbott to fight for the same right that other states already have to protect their elections.”



My Thoughts on Why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is Unconstitutional



1)  Section 5 requires some states to have their plans approved by the DOJ while other states do not have to have anything approved. It is inequitable to have one standard for some states and a different standard from some states. That is like having one school for blacks and one school for whites. The different standards also creates a situation where you have some states, like Illinois, getting to pass voter ID laws but Texas cannot pass them because the DOJ will not let us. How is it constitutional that one state can have a regulation but then Texas cannot have the same regulation because the DOJ does not like it? The Supreme Court has already approved the Indiana Voter ID law that is very similar to the one in Texas. Also, other states have voter ID laws. So how is it constitutional that Obama, Holder and the DOJ can deny the right of Texas to have a Voter ID law when other states get to have it and even the US Supreme Court has approved them!

2)  Another reason why section 5 of the voting rights act is unconstitutional is that there is no difference today between southern states and northern states in the sense that there is no institutionalized racism anymore and there is certainly NO states trying to keep minorities from voting. When the voting rights act was initially passed it was a good thing. DEMOCRAT controlled southern states had laws discriminating against minorities and preventing them from voting. Those days are long gone. Anyone can vote no matter what color you are. Anyone of any color can be elected to public office in any state. Heck, the President is half black! My friend and conservative Texas State Rep, James White who is black, was elected here in East Texas based on his values, not the color of his skin. That right there shows you that the issue of minorities being restricted from voting, or even restricted from running for office, is long gone.

3)    Some parts of the Voting Rights Act are being used to CREATE INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM. That’s right, it was passed to stop discrimination but now it is creating discrimination. It is nothing short of racist and discriminatory to say that voting districts have to be drawn based on race and that some races must have their own voting districts while other races cannot have their own voting districts. It is just silly. I don’t think ANY voting district should have the district drawn based on race, whether white black or Hispanic. We, as Americans, have to stop using race as a factor in everything we do. We need to look at each other as all fellow Americans and stop looking at race. It is keeping us apart instead of allowing us to come together. It is keeping people together in groups based on the color of their skin instead of allowing people to group together based on their values and regardless of the color of their skin. Will we never have a nation where people are judged based on the content of their character instead of the color of their skin as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed?

4)    The Voting Rights Act is being used to preserve DEMOCRAT districts and not minority districts. It is crazy but true. There are some districts in Texas that Democrats are trying to preserve using the courts. These districts are not majority minority districts. In other words, a majority of the voters in the district are not minority voters. The majority of the district is white. This makes them not protected by the Voting Rights Act as a majority minority district. The only reason the Democrats are trying to protect these Districts is because they are DEMOCRAT Districts. The Democrats argue that the minorities in the district team up to vote with part of the white people in the district and therefore it should be protected as a majority minority district. This is what the Voting Rights Act has become? A way for Democrats to keep districts without regard to protecting minorities?

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Texas GOP Analysis by RPT Staff of 2012 Court Ordered Interim Maps


On Tuesday afternoon, the San Antonio three-judge federal panel overseeing Texas redistricting posted new maps for the State House, State Senate and U.S. Congress. We are awaiting a formal order enacting these maps, however, we expect that these will be the final maps issued by the panel. The Republican Party of Texas has carefully analyzed these maps since their release and is providing our staff's findings via this email.
You can click on the above link to see the full analysis of the new State House districts in PDF format. This analysis shows side-by-side comparisons of the number of Republican districts under the maps used in the 2010 elections, the districts that were originally drawn by the Texas Legislature, the districts that were drawn by the three-judge panel in 2011 (and which were subsequently challenged), and the districts that the three-judge panel has issued today. The percentages are based on the average of the top 9 statewide Republican candidates in the 2010 General Election.

Our staff's analysis leads to the conclusion that while the new State House map creates one less Republican district (defined as a district being over 50% Republican) than the map drawn by the Legislature - it is an improvement over the previous map issued by the San Antonio three-judge panel, which drew three less Republican districts. Thus, Attorney General Abbott's appeal of the interim maps to the Supreme Court has yielded two more Republican districts than if he had not appealed. In addition, the new map creates the same number of districts as the original legislative map which are over 48% Republican, that being 102. This represents an improvement of one over the previous map drawn by the San Antonio three-judge panel. The new map also creates three more Republican districts over 55% than the previous map drawn by the San Antonio three-judge panel, although this is four districts less than the original legislative maps. However, the new map actually has three more districts over 55% than existed in 2010.

Court Releases 2012 Texas Interim Redistricting Congressional, State Rep & State Senate Maps. See Them Here! May 29th Primary Election Probable

FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW IF THE MAPS DO NOT SHOW UP WHEN YOU CLICK ON THE WEB LINK




The San Antonio 3 Judge Federal Panel has released the 2012 Interim Maps for the Texas. After Months of waiting as a result of a redistricting court battle, the people of Texas will finally know what Districts they will be in for the upcoming Congressional, State Senate, and State Representative 2012 Primary and General election.



Counties and Candidates all across Texas will finally get to plan for their elections, draw county maps, file to run for office, send out voter registration cards, etc.

Now that the Federal Court has finally released the Interim 2012 maps, it is very likely that May 29th, 2012 will be the Date of the 2012 Texas Republican Primary Election




Click on the Links Below to see the maps and see what District you will be in!





Texas 2012 Interim State House of Representatives Map:
CLICK HERE: http://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us/?PlanHeader=PLANh309 WHEN YOU CLICK ON THE LINK FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS TO SEE THE MAP: (if the map does not show when you click on this link then go to the top left of the page and click on on select plan, scroll down to to base plan, when a new window pops up click on category and then scroll down to court ordered interim House Plan planH309)
Texas 2012 Interim State House of Representatives Map


Texas 2012 Interim State Senate Map:
CLICK HERE: http://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us/?PlanHeader=PLANs172 WHEN YOU CLICK ON THE LINK FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS TO SEE THE MAP: (if the map does not show when you click on this link then go to the top left of the page and click on on select plan, scroll down to to base plan, when a new window pops up click on category and then scroll down to court ordered interim Senate Plan planS172)
Texas 2012 Interim State Senate Map:


Texas 2012 Interim Congressional Map:
CLICK HERE: http://gis1.tlc.state.tx.us/?PlanHeader=PLANc235 WHEN YOU CLICK ON THE LINK FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS TO SEE THE MAP: (if the map does not show when you click on this link then go to the top left of the page and click on on select plan, scroll down to to base plan, when a new window pops up click on category and then scroll down to court ordered interim Congressional Plan planC235)
Texas 2012 Interim Congressional Map: