SAN ANTONIO ― Another election has come and gone, but many of these races were over before they began.
The culprit was gerrymandering, the insidious practice in which district lines are redrawn to favor one party over another.
Mendacity and opportunism play no favorites. In Texas, Republicans benefit from gerrymandering. In New York, Democrats benefit. It depends on which party is in power.
In this bitterly divided era, politicians prefer rhetoric over policy, couching their machinations under the guise of lofty ideals. Do not buy it. When it comes to gerrymandering, they have only one goal ― to dilute your vote, the single greatest feature of a democracy. In diluting your vote, they amplify the votes of extremists because the primary elections settle these races.
The practice is particularly egregious in Texas. Let's remember, Texas gained 4 million residents during the last census cycle. Most of these residents are minorities, but the latest maps, based on those census figures, failed to account for the surge in Black and Latino voters. In fact, their representation was diminished.
In the latest map, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, district lines moved Black and Latino populations into predominantly white areas, thus diminishing the impact of their vote.
Republicans in local or regional races, including U.S. congressional seats, vie for seats virtually free of competition in the general election. Potential Democratic challengers, despite sterling qualifications in many cases, refuse to run, knowing the odds are stacked against them.
As it relates to San Antonio, districts represented by U.S. Reps. Tony Gonzales and Chip Roy became redder. Former state Sen. Pete Flores ran in a district that was arguably drawn for him. It was next to impossible for a Democrat to credibly challenge Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell.
State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, has said, "We drew these maps race-blind."
We have a hard time believing this. Republicans were clear-eyed, and the focus was race. Sixty percent of the new state Senate districts were majority white, even though white residents comprise less than 40 percent of the population.
"They (Republicans) know they are out of touch with the majority in the Lone Star State, and instead of adjusting their policies and politics for their constituents, they're trying to manipulate the structures of our democracy to artificially hold onto power," said Eric Holder, the former attorney general and current chair of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
Texas is not alone.
In state after state ― Illinois, Arkansas, North Carolina ― politicians have redrawn district lines to favor their party. It is not always Republicans, but since they wield majorities in almost 55 percent of state legislatures, they exploit their numbers whenever the census, released every 10 years, indicates a population change, thus necessitating new maps.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit last year to challenge the legislative maps adopted by Texas Republicans, alleging it violated the Voting Rights Act.
"The complaint we filed ... alleges that Texas has violated Section Two by creating redistricting plans that deny or bridge the rights of Latino and Black voters to vote on account of their race, color or membership in a language-minority group," Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference the day the suit was filed.
The DOJ tried to address the problem, but a federal panel has agreed to delay until next year the trial over the new political maps.
It may be up to state legislatures to solve the problem they created; the best plan, proposed by officials in states throughout the country, is to create an independent bipartisan panel designed to redraw the maps untainted by political considerations. It may be unrealistic, however, since the proposal hinges on the support of the very parties who wield the power.
Until this injustice is eliminated, voters will continue to have poor choices ― or, in some cases, no choice ― at the polls. Gerrymandering is a polite term for disenfranchisement.
President Joe Biden recently said that democracy is in peril, and one of the reasons is gerrymandering.
This article was published in the San Antonio Express-News and distributed by Tribune Content Agency.
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