Overnight, several Friends of Unfair Park sent different versions of the same story, which says: The state quite deliberately submitted to the Department of Justice new election maps that discriminate against the Hispanic voter -- especially in Dallas-Fort Worth. As in: "There is direct and circumstantial evidence that the development and passage of these redistricting plans were tarnished by the prohibited purpose of diminishing the ability of citizens of the United States, on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group, to elect their preferred candidates."
Just in case anyone thinks the Department of Justice just rubber-stamps redistricting maps.
The DoJ actually hired its own redistricting expert, Theodore Arrington, to take a look-see at the submitted maps, and he concluded state officials quite willfully drew new maps to keep Hispanics from voting for Hispanic candidates. Some highlights (?) from the massive filing that follows:
This significant impact is highly relevant to the discriminatory purpose analysis. Moreover, there is other evidence of the impact of the proposed plan on the State's minority population. As pointed out by Dr. Arrington, the State ignored the substantial increase in the minority population, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, in proposing a plan that actually reduced minority electoral power. ...Well, you get the point. Worth noting: The DoJ, which is seeking to kill the map, offered its filing the very same day Dallas sent to Justice its new council districts map, which has also been accused of being retrogressive and drawn to protect incumbents.
The proposed House plan uses visually subtle but no less direct methods to effectuate a retrogression in Hispanic representation in Dallas-Fort Worth and Harris County. Specifically, these counties exhibit wide variation in district populations to protect incumbents from districts drawn prior to ten years of explosive minority population growth. ...
Proposed districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were purposely manipulated to decrease current and future minority voting strength. ...
Specifically with regard to proposed District 23 and some districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (Dallas and Tarrant Counties), the minority population was purposely manipulated to decrease current and future minority voting strength. ...
In addition, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the State has pulled strangely-shaped minority population areas out of certain districts in order to submerge them in larger Anglo populations and to reduce minority voting strength.
