Appeals Court Overturns Lawyer Fees in Texas Redistricting Case

By EditorApr 08, 2015

AUSTIN, TX — A federal appeals panel has reversed a decision granting roughly $360,000 in legal fees to lawyers who helped former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis fend off Republican-drawn political boundaries as part of a yearslong court fight over Texas’ redistricting maps. Read more in the San Antonio Express. Read the Opinion here.

Casedocs, RedistrictingAustin, Lawyer fees, Texas, texas redistricting, Wendy Davis

Lawsuit Alleges Prison Gerrymandering in Florida County

By EditorApr 08, 2015

The ACLU of Florida has launched a salvo against prison gerrymandering. It filed this lawsuit against a Florida county's inclusion of a state prison in its legislative map. The press release is below. March 9, 2015 MIAMI, FL – Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida filed a federal lawsuit challenging an election system in Jefferson County, Florida which counts the inmate population of a state prison in the drawing of district maps. The lawsuit, filed today in the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, states that by treating the approximately 1,157 inmates at the Jefferson Correctional Institution (JCI)…

Casedocs, Local Redistricting, Redistricting, Redistricting GerrymandersACLU, Florida, Jefferson county, local, Prison gerrymandering, prisoner reallocation

Understanding Prison Gerrymandering and Its Cure: Prisoner Reallocation

By EditorApr 08, 2015

Long overlooked in the context of redistricting, prisoners are counted by the U.S. Census Bureau as residents of the institutions they are incarcerated in. The goal of redistricting electoral boundaries at the state and local levels is to create equally populated districts that ensure every voter's vote has equal weight in an election. A consensus has been building over the years that large prison populations counted by the Census Bureau in this way, confounds these goals. While the Census Bureau has not changed its counting method for prisoners, in response to growing concern by states and advocacy groups, the Bureau…

Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanderscensus, IN-DEPTH, Prison gerrymandering, prisoner reallocation, redistricting

Anatomy of a Section 2 Lawsuit: Ferguson-Florissant School District

By EditorMar 30, 2015

The Missouri State Conference of the NAACP filed a lawsuit against the Ferguson-Florissant School District this past December in a quest to discontinue the at-large elections of its seven member board and instead divide the school district into seven election districts from which each board member will be elected. Changing the method of election in this way is sure to dramatically change the composition of the board in favor of the African-American families in the district. Why? As it turns out, the Ferguson-Florissant School District’s demographics and political environment is indeed a microcosm of the sad state of race relations…

Redistrictingfeatured, Ferguson, lawid, lpvra, Missouri, school district

Politics or Voter Discrimination? Texas City Sued for Election Changes

By EditorMar 23, 2015

Pasadena, Texas: MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) filed suit this past November after the Mayor of Pasadena, Texas successfully pushed a proposition to voters that would change an 8 member city council elected by district to one with 6 single member districts and 2 members elected at-large, by the entire city. Advocates of the narrowly passed measure touted it as a way to ensure that there are some council members looking out for the city as a whole, as opposed to narrowly focusing on the voters in their own district. What sounds like a good democratic goal…

Redistrictingcity of pasadena, MALDEF, Texas

ACLU Files Voting Rights Lawsuit in Fullerton, CA

By EditorMar 19, 2015

Fullerton, CA: The ACLU filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of Asian voters in the city of Fullerton, California. The suit alleges that Fullerton's at-large style elections impede the ability of Asian voters to elect their preferred candidates. Unlike, its lawsuit in Yakima, WA, this complaint is based on the California Voting Rights Act as opposed to the federal law. Read the ACLU's release from Wednesday below: Paik v. City of Fullerton is a lawsuit alleging that the City of Fullerton’s at-large elections violate the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA), which prevents cities from imposing at-large elections that deny minority communities the…

Local Redistricting, RedistrictingCalifornia, Fullerton, local

New Developments in Yakima, WA Vote Dilution Case

By EditorMar 19, 2015

Yakima, WA: The Yakima city council voted this week to give themselves more time to decide if the council will appeal a recent federal court ruling invalidating its at-large method of electing city council members. The Hispanic population in the city is 42% and Hispanic voters had been unable to an elect a candidate of their choosing in the at-large scheme. The court had to make a finding of racially polarized voting in past election to invalidate the at-large system. The recent court ruling required the city to divide voters into districts, both the city and the ACLU -who was a…

Local Redistricting, RedistrictingACLU, Washington, Yakima Washington

The Census Bureau Warms Up to Prison Gerrymandering

By EditorMar 16, 2015

The Census Bureau boasted in its 2010 View from the States,” that it has listened to state requests and is working toward helping states facilitate the latest redistricting trend: prisoner reallocation. The Bureau announced that it would conduct a feasibility study regarding prisoner reallocation - counting prisoners at their last residential address, although a previous study nearly ten years go found it to be cost prohibitive. Currently, the two states that have already endeavored to reallocate prisoners have used the Bureau’s Group Quarters file, which was released early during the 2010 census cycle for that purpose. The group quarters data…

Redistricting, Redistricting Prisonerscensus, national news, policyindepth

Do Ineligible Voters Infringe on Eligible Voter’s Rights?

By EditorMar 11, 2015

The Supreme Court will decide soon whether to take the case of a Texas voter who claims that her vote has been unconstitutionally diluted because her rural district has substantially more voters compared to other, urban districts comprised of many noncitizen, ineligible voters. The claim is that this makes her vote less influential than her counterparts in urban districts. The practical question in this case is whether line-drawers should be using 'total population' or "citizen voting age population' as the measure for drawing equally populated election districts. This Cato Institute article explains the case; Evenwel v. Abbott in more detail.

RedistrictingAbbott, cvap, Evenwel, Texas

Arizona Supreme Court Case Could Threaten Redistricting Commissions in these 6 States

By EditorMar 10, 2015

Last week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. The case centers around whether voters by initiative, can transfer the authority to redraw state and congressional boundaries from the state legislature to an independent commission, something Arizona has been doing since 2000. This Brennan Center report lists those states with commissions that could be in jeopardy should the Supreme Court side with the Arizona legislature in this case. Read the report here.

Elections Clause, FEATURES, POLICY and PRACTICE, Redistricting CommissionsBrennan Center, States