Preview

Redistricting In Texas

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
452 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Redistricting In Texas
Redistricting is a pressing issue, especially recently in Texas. The redistricting of Texas by the Republicans has caused a huge ruckus, making Democrats very angry. This is because the lines are being redrawn mainly to benefit the Republican Party. However, this is not a prohibited practice. Also, other factors such as population growth can be used to justify the extra redistricting.
The districts in the state are currently determined by the population in an area and not by geographical size measures. This means that a densely populated area has a physically smaller district size geographically, while a more rural area with less population density would have a geographically larger district. The population in all areas changes daily, however the only official census count is taken only once
…show more content…
This was enacted to prevent racial discriminations. However, there is currently no legislation against redistricting based on partisan preferences. This means that although it may sound a bit unfair to redistrict in order to put a certain party on top, it is not illegal. The law allows any party that has the majority and wishes to redistrict in their own favor to do so. As long as this redistricting does not violate the interests of a minority group and is as equal as possible population-wise, the courts will not overturn it. This alignment of districts with political party is the main purpose and motive behind redistricting before legally required. And, although it is frowned upon, it is completely legal. If the political party has enough support in the legislature, who is chosen by the voting people, to approve and pass the new districts, than the voting people must already have a preference to this party anyway. Considering this, aligning the peoples’ representatives with its majority party sounds fair regardless of whether that party is Republican or

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Before the 2010 census, Missouri had 9 representatives in the United States House of Representatives. After the census, Missouri lost a representative and now only has 8 representatives in the United States House of Representatives. This process of altering the number of representatives in a state after a census is known as reapportionment. As a result of this change in representation, Missouri also redrew its districts. The process of redrawing districts due to a census is known as redistricting. Unfortunately, this can lead to gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is the process of using redistricting for the purpose of obtaining a partisan or factional advantage.…

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gerrymandering is currently legal as there aren’t any laws that prohibit its use. However, some courts have ruled some gerrymandering cases as unconstitutional. It is believed that Gill v. Whitford case could bring about new regulations to the Gerrymandering.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The constituents of a district are the residents in an area for the elected official.…

    • 5850 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main purpose of gerrymandering is to increase the number of legislative seats that can be won by the political party which is in charge of redrawing the district boundaries during that period of time, and to create “safe” seats for the party’s incumbent legislators which are seats in which the incumbent will always win re-election. Gerrymandering is the redrawing of election district boundaries to give an electoral advantage to a particular candidate or party. It has been recognized as a part of the American political landscape since 1812. The term derives from a redrawing of US Representative districts in Massachusetts before the 1812 elections, when Elbridge Gerry was governor. People said the district was reminiscent of a salamander and thus the term Gerry-mander was coined. The Constitution requires that representation in the House of Representatives be apportioned to states on the basis of population. So, every ten years we count up the number of people living in each state and making sure that each state gets at least one House member, divide up the rest of the seats among the states equally. States with large populations get a bigger amount of house seats smaller states get just the one. A variety of Supreme Court cases, however, have applied the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause to the process of drawing legislative districts resulting in a requirement that each district have roughly the same population. So after each Census, states and localities have to redraw their district lines to ensure that the districts are roughly equal. This process redrawing of district lines has been blamed for almost every problem in American politics. The redistricting process therefore became a target for political reformers. In 2008, Californians enacted Prop. 11 and created the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC). State legislators would no longer be able to pick their own…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Redistricting- is the process of redrawing congressional district to reflect increase or decrease in seats allotted to the state as well as population shifts within the state. The state decides how many seats a state receive.…

    • 4881 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Attorney General rejected it because the plan created only one black-majority district. NC then gave a second plan making two black-majority districts, one of which was no wider than the interstate road along with it stretched. Five residents of NC challenged the constitutionality of this shaped district, saying that its only point was to secure the election of additional black representatives. The District Court (3judges) held that they failed to state a constitutional claim, the residents of NC then appealed and the Supreme Court granted certiorari. Did the North Carolina residents' claim, that the State created a racially gerrymandered district, raise a valid constitutional issue under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause? Yes, the Court ruled that even though NC's reapportionment plan was racially neutral on its face, the resultant district shape was unusual enough to say that it made an effort to separate voters into districts based on race. The Court stated that the District Court would have to decide whether or not some convincing governmental interest justified NC's…

    • 3484 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is like a game, call it the redistricting game. Gerrymandering is an act that tries to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group. Although the Supreme Court ruled gerrymandering unconstitutional in 1986, it could possibly challenge in court. To sum gerrymandering up in a sentence. The main purpose of redistricting is to allow fewer districts for a politician opponent. They take parts of a states that they feel like would think, communicate, have the same skin color or act like there opponent and the attempt to make as few districts including them as possible. Doing this gives that candidate a higher chance of getting votes of the people in other districts. Virginia is considered to be one of the most gerrymandered…

    • 304 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The decision in which Texas should become annexed was an ongoing battle in which many people have many different beliefs. Henry Clay a famous speaker of the house believed that we should not annex Texas. One of the reasons was that he believed it would start a war with Mexico. He also believed that it would not help the Union at all. Another man John L. O'Sullivan believed that we should annex Texas. One of his main reasons is that it would add more land, power, and another state to the Union.…

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this essay, I will explain why Texas should retain the partisan election of judges. Texas is one of the few states that choose their judges using a Partisan voting method. Partisan elections can be unreliable and deceitful. A high legal position such as a judge should never be chosen in such a manner. Judges are not chosen based on merit or skills.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I understand why you are torn when comes to gerrymandering, but for me I don’t think it’s fair. As the the definition of gerrymandering it is “redistricting to benefit a particular group”. What I really don’t like about it, is states get divided the way the congress wants and it changes at every . Even if the states gets redistricting in a weird way and it doesn’t make sense by looking at the map, as long as the district ends up with equal population. I don’t think the way it’s proportioned to make sure that one party has a greater chance of getting elected is right. It’s like if you live there and you end up in a population that you don’t belong in, you may have to move. I don’t think I should have to move, just to belong in the same party…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    After voters elect government officials to office, they are assigned districts to represent by their respective state. Every ten years, a census of the United States population is taken, and the boundaries are redrawn so that every district has approximately the same population to ensure equal voter representation and is not controlled by a major political party. It is important to draw the lines so that every community in a district is given the chance to voice their concerns and opinions. It is also important to make sure that the lines are not manipulated by a political party to gain political advantage - this is called gerrymandering. Gerrymandering gives control to a major political party and affects the issues that a government will look…

    • 208 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gerrymandering allows for a particular party to get bills passed easily by having a majority of their party in The House of Representatives and Senate. With this increase they will have enough votes to make a bill veto proof. Political and racial gerrymandering are unconstitutional and illegal. As stated in, The voting rights act of 1965 “prohibits spreading minorities across districts”The court’s solution required that states create majority-minority districts — districts in which the majority of the voting-age population belonged to a single minority. With voting that occurred largely along racial lines, these districts allowed minority voters to elect their candidates of choice.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Legislature of the State of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. The Legislature is arguably considered the most powerful arm of the Texas government not only because of its power of the purse to control and direct the activities of state government and the strong constitutional connections between it and the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, but also due to Texas's plural executive. Texas has a bicameral (two chamber) legislature consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Right now the Republicans have the majority, but it is estimated that if Clinton wins it could flip the House. Most people tend to vote strictly for their party’s candidates, but this election could cause some of them to split ticket vote. Although it is predicted that if Clinton leads by 10 points that she has a chance of giving the Democrats a lead in the House this is unlikely due to the fact that Gerrymandering is popular among the republican states. Gerrymandering is the art of redistricting in a way to help the incumbent, by concentrating or diluting the minorities, so that the incumbent’s party is likely to win, while discouraging other possible candidates for Congressional office. If the majority party changes in the House then that would drastically change the kind of policies that are made because a different party, the Democrats, would be the majority and someone from that party would become the majority leader, while the Republican Party would have to step down and become to minority…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Texas is a large state with a vast population that has a variety of diversity and perspectives about the government. The perspectives of the people are important since they define the political culture of the state and affect how others in different nations perceive us. Texas is often described as having a combination of traditionalistic individualistic political culture. Some patterns that reflect Texas’s political culture are taxes kept low and social services minimized. Also, business leaders are the people that have a major say in how the government is managed. In Texas the state has a diversity of views in how the government should be managed which makes it more difficult to classify the political culture. (Champagne and Harpham, pg. 6)The…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays