Tag Archives: Justice Department

Redistricting updates

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

The redoubtable Michael Li takes to BOR to bring an update on the preclearance lawsuit in DC, in which the Justice Department has strongly contested the state’s House and Congressional maps. In papers filed [Tuesday] evening in Washington, the Department … Continue reading →

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DOJ defers on County Commissioners map

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

More information, please. The U.S. Department of Justice, charged with considering whether Harris County’s redistricting map meets the requirements of the Voting Rights Act, has asked the county for more information to make its ruling. The DOJ letter is here. … Continue reading →

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News flash: Voter ID will mean fewer people can vote

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

I know, I’m as shocked as you are. As many as a quarter of voters in some small Texas counties might not be able to cast ballots if the federal government allows the new state voter ID law to go … Continue reading →

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The SOS responds to DOJ on voter ID

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Two weeks ago, the Justice Department asked some questions about Texas’ voter ID law as a condition for preclearance. The Secretary of State has now given some answers, though they may not be what DOJ was looking for. Under section … Continue reading →

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Court orders interim maps drawn

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

I was just asked recently what will happen if the redistricting litigation isn’t resolved before the November 14 start of the filing period for 2012 candidates. I responded that I wasn’t really sure. Shortly thereafter, this story appeared. The federal … Continue reading →

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TRO granted for redistricting plans

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Texas Redistricting: The San Antonio panel this morning enjoined provisions of the Texas Election Code requiring counties to redraw precinct boundaries by October 1 and to issue new voter registration certificates to voters by December 6. The panel also enjoined … Continue reading →

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TRO requested for redistricting plans

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Texas Redistricting: This morning, MALC and the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force asked the San Antonio panel to enter a temporary restraining order to prevent the State of Texas from implementing its redistricting plans on the grounds that they have … Continue reading →

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Still cleaning up Tommy Thomas’ mess

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Some stains take a long time to scrub out. The U.S. Justice Department is proceeding with an investigation of Harris County sheriff’s operations, after county leaders refused to enter into a civil rights settlement with the government or hire an … Continue reading →

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DOJ says redistricting plans purposely discriminated

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Game on. The Justice Department said late Friday that based on their preliminary investigation, a congressional redistricting map signed into law by Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry appears to have been “adopted, at least in part, for the purpose of … Continue reading →

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Davis files anoter redistricting lawsuit

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

After the Justice Department declined to object to the new State Senate map under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Sen. Wendy Davis filed a lawsuit in the federal court in San Antonio challenging it on other grounds. State … Continue reading →

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DOJ pushes back on State House and Congressional maps

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Good. The Justice Department said Monday that Texas’ state House and congressional redistricting plans didn’t comply with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), indicating they thought the maps approved by Gov. Rick Perry (R) gave too little voting … Continue reading →

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Justice Department urged to block voter ID law

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

I’m all in on this. A coalition of civil rights groups is urging the Obama administration’s Justice Department to reject Texas’ voter-ID law, charging that the measure advocated by Rick Perry intentionally discriminates against black and Hispanic voters. The Legislature … Continue reading →

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Redistricting litigation gets underway this week

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Starting tomorrow, a three-judge panel in San Antonio will hear one of the two redistricting-related lawsuits that have been filed in Texas. I figure this is as good a time as any to review the landscape as we head into … Continue reading →

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A peek behind the scenes

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Want to know what the Republicans were thinking during redistricting? Here you go. Emails unsealed by a federal judge show that key Republicans involved in Texas congressional redistricting bickered over strategy and actively considered bypassing the Justice Department two months … Continue reading →

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Commissioners Court approves its redistricting plan, DOJ approves city’s plan

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Greg and Stace attended today’s Commissioners Court meeting, where to nobody’s surprise the slightly-less-but-still-retrogressive new redistricting plan was unanimously approved. And why shouldn’t it be? It took care of the main, if not the sole, purpose of the task, which … Continue reading →

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Taking aim at the Voting Rights Act

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

In responding to a petition by State Rep. Marc Veasey and State Sen. Wendy Davis to intervene against the state in its lawsuit to get the federal court to pre-clear the new maps, the Attorney General responded by saying that … Continue reading →

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Chron story on Harris County redistricting

Posted on August 7, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

County Commissioners are shocked and dismayed to learn that there are people who would question their ability to do whatever they want to do. The county released an amended map on Friday, having gathered community input on the initial map … Continue reading →

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The alternative Commissioners Court map

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Opponents of the proposed County Commissioners map have presented their version in the last public hearing on county redistricting. Democrat Sylvia Garcia was Precinct 2 commissioner from 2002 until this year, having lost to Republican Jack Morman in last November’s … Continue reading →

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Texas seeks preclearance from the courts

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

This was expected. Texas bypassed the Obama administration’s Department of Justice on Tuesday, opting to ask a panel of federal judges in Washington, D.C., to review the state’s new maps for congressional, legislative and State Board of Education districts. Attorney … Continue reading →

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A closer look at the proposed County Commissioner precincts

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Rick Casey does some analysis of the proposed Harris County redistricting map and notes some concerns about the way Precinct 2 was drawn. The total population of the proposed new precinct is 57 percent Hispanic and 31 percent Anglo. But … Continue reading →

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Austin presents a single-member Council map

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

The city of Austin has released the first maps of a proposed six-district City Council, which Mayor Lee Leffingwell would like to put on the ballot next year for public approval. The City of Austin has for decades operated under … Continue reading →

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Williams in, Lucio out for Congress

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Now that the Lege has finished its job with Congressional redistricting, expect to hear a lot more stories about the hopefuls and the not-hopefuls and their plans. For instance, Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams. With the race for Senate getting crowded, … Continue reading →

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Two other views of Texas redistricting

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a fascinating paper from the Harvard Election Data Archive that attempts to project how many Congressional seats each party will win based on statewide performance. Based on the 2008 presidential election results, twenty-two of the twenty-three current Republican members … Continue reading →

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Senate map is out, controversy precedes it

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Before we had a State Senate map, we had a brawl brewing over one proposed district on it. Accusing the state Senate’s Republican leaders of a “shameful partisan attack,” Sen. Wendy Davis said Tuesday that a new redistricting map for … Continue reading →

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Time to start analyzing the new districts

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

You will no doubt be excited to hear that I now have electoral data for the new State House districts as they currently stand. My thanks to Joe Madden of the Legislative Study Group for getting all that to me. … Continue reading →

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House passes redistricting map

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

The Trib stayed up all night to see how it ended. The Texas House tentatively approved new political districts early this morning on a 92-52 vote after hours of nips and tucks that left the proposal they started with mostly … Continue reading →

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Smith v. Barton on redistricting

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

From Politico: A bitter, behind-the-scenes fight has broken out among Texas Republicans over redistricting, pitting Rep. Lamar Smith against longtime colleague Rep. Joe Barton. The dispute is over the makeup of four new congressional districts for the Lone Star State, … Continue reading →

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Eversole rests his case without presenting one

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

You have to admire the guts, if nothing else. In a move even his attorneys acknowledged was risky, Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole’s defense team rested Wednesday without calling a single witness after prosecutors ended more than two weeks of … Continue reading →

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Voter ID passes the House

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

As expected. There was a long and often contentious debate, but when you have a 2/3 majority as the Republicans currently do, you usually get what you want. Gov. Rick Perry declared the voter ID issue an emergency issue, which … Continue reading →

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The next step for voter ID

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Very likely, the courthouse. While the Democrats have little chance of stopping the bill from getting the votes to pass, this particular piece of legislation may very well be tied up in lawsuits for years. And today, Democrats can lay … Continue reading →

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Jury selection begins in Eversole trial

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Get your popcorn popper fired up. Jury selection begins this morning in the trial of Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole, who stands accused of accepting bribes from a friend and developer to whom he allegedly steered county contracts and appointments. … Continue reading →

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The opening bars of the redistricting overture

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

Now that we have Census data, you know what comes next. Here’s an Express News story that discusses how redistricting will be different this time around. Democrats still are smarting from the redistricting plan engineered in 2003 by then-U.S. House … Continue reading →

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Voter ID 2011

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Charles Kuffner

The debate is going on in the Senate today over voter ID – it will be taken up by the House later, after committee hearings that are sure to be a freak show. You can follow the ins and outs … Continue reading →

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More on Sumners and the LWV

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve got some updates on the change in policy by Tax Assessor-to-be Don Sumners regarding voter registrations at naturalization ceremonies. First, Sumners has acknowledged the need to get pre-clearance from the Justice Department for any changes to voter registration procedures, … Continue reading →

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