District Court, Splitting 2-1, Finds Texas Congressional Districts Violate VRA

[JerryArkansas]

The Brown districts would have to be completely redrawn, the Pink districts are ones which could be directly affected by redrawing.  Yellow shouldn't be touched, but might.

[JerryArkansas]

Honestly, we should just get rid of the VRA district requirements *and* partisan gerrymandering. Draw compact districts like Elections Canada does and then every party can let the chips fall where they may. Compete for votes, make voters actually like you. Gerrymandering, IMO, is why both parties are so widely reviled these days.

That could easily lead to African Americans in the South being completely drawn out of power.  Its not hard to draw compact districts which destroy their representation. 

[JerryArkansas]

Anyone have an idea as to how the new maps may look like?

Likely a total redraw of the southern part of the state, Fourth valley district would be likely.  Austin would likely also have a seat entirely in Travis county as well.  It might take out 2 or 3 republicans, depending on what they do in San Antonio. 

Maybe some rearanging of the 11 and 23.

[JerryArkansas]

I don't even know what the court is getting at with CD-26. Unless they're mandating a third VRA district in the Dallas-FW Metro.

Thats what they seem to be doing.  One for Tarrant, and two for Dallas.

[JerryArkansas]

Most of Nueces would end up in TX-34, which is where it should be, since it has previously been in a district with Brownsville. Farenthold would still have a seat, so that isn't a change. TX-35 is the issue, because if it condenses into Travis County, that means that another Bexar County anchored seat has to be drawn. That is where all the questions about change come in.

This is the real question because by putting the 35th all in Travis, you have to move the 17th, 10, 21st, and the 25 out of the county.  Which leads to a cascade effect on all the districts in the southern part of the state.  I'm trying to draw something for this part of the state, I'm not going to even tackle the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.