Texas Policy Report Proposal

Redistricting in Texas and How it Affects Voter Turn out for Minorities

Texas Policy Report Proposal

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Redistricting is the process by which state legislature are able to create district boundaries. Each of the Teaxas’36 United States Representatives and state legislatures are elected from the various districts in Texas and make up the Texas legislature. The district boundaries are often reviewed after every 10 years immediately after the completion of the Unite States census. According to the federal government each district should have nearly equal population and discrimination should not exist on the basis of ethnicity or race (Fraga, 2016). For many years, Texas redistricting has often been faced with challenges. Politicians have used gerrymandering which is improper redistricting to divide voting areas and this gives their party an unfair advantage. Gerrymandering has led to votes of many Texans being rendered meaningless as they do not really count into who will be winner. Redistricting has been found to have effect especially on voter turnout of minorities thus should not be done by politicians (Lo, 2013).

I believe race should not be considered when doing redistricting. Race can be classified as a Gerrymandering tactic. Race is a factor that has often been used by politicians to decide on how people will vote. Such statistics may influence politicians in deciding which race will occupy a certain district most as they wat to decide who their voters will be guaranteeing them victory. An example is a district that may have more white Americans as compared to African American. African Americans are likely to vote for a Democrat candidate as compared to a republican and thus during redistricting a Republican politician may try as much to ensure people of African American descent are not in a particular district. Redistricting if done well may provide an opportunity for minorities an opportunity for fair representation. If it’s done the minorities may be able to elect the leaders that may be able to serve their interests but if not done well, it may exclude the minority group from having a fair shot in getting representation. In ;2012, a research indicated that states where Democratic legislatures had controlled redistricting, their candidates were able to win the election by about 56 percent of the votes and they acquired 71% of the seats. The Republicans too were guilty of this as states where they controlled the process, they were able to bag 53% of the votes and 72% of the seats (McKee, 2006).

Reference

Fraga, B. L. (2016). Redistricting and the causal impact of race on voter turnout. The Journal of Politics, 78(1), 19-34.

Lo, J. (2013). Legislative responsiveness to gerrymandering: Evidence from the 2003 Texas redistricting. Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 8(1), 75-92.

McKee, S. C., Teigen, J. M., & Turgeon, M. (2006). The partisan impact of congressional redistricting: the case of Texas, 2001–2003. Social Science Quarterly, 87(2), 308-317.