Author Archives: J Christian Adams

DOJ & Opponents to Texas: You discriminate by failing to include ‘non-citizens’ in redistricting representation


The opponents to the new statewide Texas congressional plan continue to accuse the State of discrimination and retrogression because they allege they failed to create enough seats for Hispanics population growth and allow statewide proportional respresentation of non-citizen Hispanics that accounted for some of the population growth. 

In fact, as this brief shows, the increase in voting age citizens (as opposed to total population) within the Latino community constituted only 20% of the state’s population growth to reach a total of current 24.7% of the state’s eligible voting age population.  Thus, the proposed plans by Texas provide for a total of 8 of its 36 (or 22%) Congressional seats to be Latino held seats and accurately reflect the proportional representation of Hispanic citizens. 

DOJ and the other opponents to the plans want Texas to draw even more seats based on the overall population increases, including citizen and non-citizens, despite the fact that much of this growth was non-citizen in nature.


The evidence shows that Texas drew as many districts as population demographics would permit without resorting to outright racial germandering.  Because the Hispanic population is often integrated into other population groups and not always concentrated, the proposed seats by its opponents fail to meet even the first prong of the legal analysis (Gingles analysis) where there needs to be a majority (50%+1) of a minority group to require the drawing of additional majority minority Latino districts. 


While the plaintiffs in the case seek to force Texas to draw additional seats, those forcibly drawn districts could very well be ruled unconstitutional under Shaw v. Reno.  These examples (here, here, here and here) of racially gerrymandered districts are included in some of the alternative maps suggested by the opponents of the Texas plans. Unfortunately, they look like football kicking tees, bug splats and other alien creatures primarily because they drew the lines with only thing on their mind – race. 

Closing arguments for Photo ID in Mississippi

Final arguments in the photo identification referendum to be held in Mississippi:

PRO: Dishonest should not be allowed to ‘steal’ elections

Voting fraud is no respecter or region or party. There have been voting problems in counties as diverse as Jefferson Davis, Holmes, Benton and Madison Counties. Some of these problems have happened in Republican primaries, some in Democrat primaries and some in the general election. Voting fraud is indeed a real and current problem that must be addressed once and for all by the voters of Mississippi. 

Con: Disenfranchises the young, elderly, poor and minorities

The measure is a voter suppression tool. It is tantamount to the poll taxes and literacy tests imposed by a Jim Crow society to keep African-Americans from voting decades ago. The birth certificates and other documents required to obtain a government-issued ID cost money. Many Mississippians simply cannot afford to pay for them, especially in these tough economic times.

Occupy Organizer Denies Allegations Of Voter Fraud

In Wisconsin, the organizer of Occupy Milwaukee is calling his recent arrest and allegations of voter fraud “distractions.” Austin Thompson was handcuffed and taken away by police more than a week ago after the group purposely made a spectacle outside M&I Bank. Allegations of voter fraud later surfaced after a complaint stated that Thompson used an extended stay hotel as his address to vote in the spring elections, and he really lives in Georgia.

Wisconsin GOP may move up redistricting changes before recall elections

JSOnline @ the Link:   A key Republican senator said Wednesday she favors using new legislative maps for the next round of recall elections – a change that she said would prevent logistical headaches in conducting elections.

The change would also give Republicans a better chance at protecting their majority in the Legislature in the next batch of recall elections.


“I don’t see a clear path to getting out of this mess other than clarifying these districts,” said Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), chairwoman of the Senate Transportation and Elections Committee.


Republicans drew new legislative maps this year, and because of that action they now represent a new set of voters. But any recall elections between now and November 2012 will be conducted in their old districts because of the way they wrote the law adopting those new maps, according to the state’s top election official.


The issue is important because the new maps generally favor Republicans. By holding recall elections in the old districts, Democrats would have an advantage as they try to flip one seat in the Senate to take control of that chamber.


Lazich said she supported changing the law so that the new districts would take effect right away, which would mean any recalls would have to be conducted in the revised districts. She said she would discuss the matter with Senate Republicans when they meet Thursday and decide after that whether to write a bill on the issue.


Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said such a change would be unfair, but that he expects it to happen.


The “deserted agency” EAC is on the budget cutting agenda of the supercommittee

Link at the Washington Post.   As we enter the next round of budget cuts or taxes, it is becoming more likely that the EAC and FEC will need to merge duties to save money.  However, Democrats argued to the supercommittee that certain EAC duties should not be merged into the FEC because they are “increasingly deadlocked and incapacitated.”  Now, there may be some reasons not to disband the EAC; however, this isn’t one of them.  In fact, many observers would note that the EAC would be the agency that is unnecessarily partisan, discriminatory, deadlocked, and now chronically incapacitated (due to a lack of quorum).  Last time I checked, the FEC had a full compliment of commissioners.  Increasingly, the EAC is becoming the “deserted agency” as NASS has repeatedly called for an end to its mission and now FVAP is overtly lobbying to wrestle away the EAC survey of overseas and military voters.    


The EAC was established by the 2002 Help America Vote Act as an independent, bipartisan commission tasked with establishing election reform guidelines and handing out federal money to states to help them meet those rules and buy new voting machines. Those tasks have largely been completed, House Administration Republicans say, and the EAC spends far too much on staff and overhead to complete the work it has left.

The Election Assistance Commission has fulfilled its function and is now a perfect example of unnecessary and wasteful spending,” they wrote to the supercommittee.  The House Administration Committee approved a bill this year to end the EAC, but it failed on the House floor in June.

Committee Democrats strongly disagree with the majority’s recommendation, arguing that closing the EAC would shift its responsibilities — including certifying voting machines — to what they call “the increasingly deadlocked and incapacitated” Federal Election Commission.

Eligible voting pool plumets in New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish

Here.  New Orleans has 17 percent fewer registered voters today than the last time Louisiana held a primary to elect a governor.

The majority of those 50,000 voters came off the New Orleans rolls in
December during the first extensive voter purge since Hurricane
Katrina.

For the congressional election last November, 274,000 New
Orleanians could have cast a ballot, according to secretary of state
figures. That’s despite the fact that the 2010 census now tells us there were only 270,614 adults living in New Orleans at the time.

That
means New Orleans had a whopping 101 percent voter registration. Today,
it’s at a more historically, and logically, reasonable 85 percent.

St.
Bernard Parish likewise had astronomically high numbers, with 102
percent of its adults registered to vote for the 2010 midterm
congressional election. The 2010 census listed 26,720 adults in St.
Bernard, while the secretary of state had about 27,300 registered voters
for that Nov. 2 election.

Despite now having 42 percent fewer
voters than it did for the last pre-Katrina gubernatorial primary in
2003, current numbers still place St. Bernard quite high at 93 percent.

Nationally,
about 65 percent of adults were registered to vote for the November
election, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

In the
metro area, New Orleans and St. Bernard lost the most voters and were
the major anomalies since the 2007 election. St. Charles, St. John and
St. Tammany parishes showed slight increases in the number of registered
voters, along with the state as a whole, and other parishes such as
Jefferson had slight decreases.

Because of inflated registrar of
voter rolls in New Orleans and St. Bernard since Katrina, voter turnout
figures there have been absurdly inaccurate.

The secretary of
state listed turnout in New Orleans at a measly 27 percent for the 2007
gubernatorial primary, whereas the last pre-Katrina gubernatorial
primary in 2003 had 42 percent turnout.