The Justice Department on Thursday sued Galveston County in Texas over a redistricting plan that allegedly discriminates in opposition to Black and Hispanic voters.
Justice Department legal professionals accused officers in the GOP-dominated southeastern Texas county of intentionally making “drastic changes” to district strains to eradicate the only real district in which the county’s Black and Hispanic voters had an equal alternative to elect most well-liked candidates of alternative.
According to a criticism filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the redistricting plan accredited in November for the county’s governing physique often known as the Commissioners Court was “adopted, in part, for a discriminatory purpose” that violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s provisions in opposition to discriminatory voting practices or procedures.
“The 2021 commissioners court redistricting plan will result in denying or abridging the right of Black and Hispanic voters in Galveston County to participate equally in the political process,” the Justice Department stated in its lawsuit, which as first reported by CNN.
Galveston County Communications Director Zach Davidson declined to touch upon the allegations in the lawsuit, citing pending litigation.
The redistricting effort has “both the result and intent of diluting the voting strength of the County’s minority voters,” the lawsuit goes on to say.
Census information from 2020 exhibits the county, located on the Gulf Coast, has a voting-age inhabitants that’s roughly 58 p.c white, 22.5 p.c Hispanic and 12.5 p.c Black.
The Justice Department is asking the courtroom to dam Galveston County from utilizing the challenged plan to conduct elections. It additionally calls on the courtroom to order Galveston County to plot and put in place a brand new redistricting plan.
The lawsuit marks the third time underneath the Biden administration that the Justice Department has filed a lawsuit in Texas over voting practices. Federal prosecutors additionally sued Georgia, its secretary of State and state election board in June over voting procedures.
“This action is the latest demonstration of the Justice Department’s commitment to protecting the voting rights of all Americans, particularly during the current redistricting cycle,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke stated in a press release. “We will continue to use all available tools to challenge voting discrimination in our country.”
The authorized battle over the redistricting map is the most recent in the primary redistricting cycle for the reason that Supreme Court in 2013 successfully invalidated a significant half of the Voting Rights Act that laid out a method for which states wanted clearance from the Justice Department or a federal courtroom in Washington earlier than they might make adjustments to voting procedures or redraw electoral districts.
The criticism concentrating on Galveston County alleges that the adopted redistricting map moved a voting precinct that had the best Black voting-age inhabitants in the county out of the majority-minority district the place it had been situated for 20 years and cut up it between two different commissioners courtroom precincts.
The Commissioners Court, which consists of a county choose, who serves because the presiding officer, and 4 commissioners elected from single member districts, additionally intentionally excluded the one Black commissioner, Democrat Stephen Holmes, from being “meaningfully involved” in the drawing of the 2021 plan, the lawsuit states.
The county has a prolonged document of making an attempt to eradicate electoral alternatives for the county’s Black and Hispanic voters and adopting discriminatory redistricting plans, in accordance with the lawsuit. The Justice Department twice rejected the county’s redistricting plans — in 1992 and 2012 — as a result of issues about violating the Voting Rights Act.