Visalia Times-Delta.   A California editorial notes: 

“For starters, the population of Tulare County is now at least 58 percent Hispanic, and by the time the census tract numbers are revealed, that percentage could be higher. In 2000, the percentage of Hispanic residents was 51 percent.  In 2001, the county was under great pressure to make sure that at least one district was a ‘minority majority.’ With several supervisor districts having a majority of Hispanics, that pressure isn’t as strong now.”

An Examiner  posting on the redistricting process in New Jersey and the first meeting of the Legislative Apportionment Commission.

At Pajamas Media.

You often hear in the voter ID debate, “you need an ID to cash a check” or “buy alcohol” or “fly on a plane” or “rent a room” or “go to Costco” or “check out a book”, etc.

The North Star State comes up with a new one in this KARE-TV story:

“In St. Paul you now need an ID card to drop off your compost.”

A judge has refused to delay the elections under the current system in Compton (CA).  Hispanic plaintiffs are challenging Compton’s at large elections for city council.  The LA Times has more.

“The plaintiffs contend that the city’s at-large elections to choose a representative for each of Compton’s four districts weaken Latinos’ voting power, and they are pushing for district-restricted voting.  Such a change could give a Latino candidate a greater chance of winning a council seat, the plaintiffs argue. Over the last two decades Compton’s population has shifted from predominantly African American to about two-thirds Latino, though blacks still constitute the majority of registered voters. No Latino candidate has ever been elected to the City Council or any other city office.  ‘What we have here is a complete absence historically of Latino representation,’ Avila told the court Tuesday.”

 

Stateline editorial.

“Perhaps the biggest wildcard facing GOP plans for Texas and many other Southern states is that the Obama administration must approve their new maps, both for congressional and state legislative districts.”

If the DOJ is truly an obstacle, as so many editorials have claimed, then the solution is simple: go straight to United States District Court in DC and go around the obstacle.  The Rules of Civil Procedure will provide certainty.  The judge will provide a neutral decisionmaker.  It will be faster and in the end may cost less. 

Here.

Wisconsin Journal Times:  “The voter identification provision is a wellness program for democracy.  In the modern health care field, the trend is prevention. Nip a condition in the bud before it even becomes a problem, the theory goes.  Voter ID operates on the same principle. That’s what the League of Women Voters, the NAACP and other angry opponents lining up to bash it fail to understand.””

The New Black Panthers disgraced  the Jacksonville Martin Luther King Day parade this weekend by marching.

Dan Scanlan at the Florida Times Union disgraced their pages by reporting on the NBPP presence in the parade without any hint of the fact that the Panthers represent precisely the opposite of what Dr. King envisioned for this country. 

“High school marching bands, ROTC programs, the New Black Panthers and Jacksonville Urban League joined hundreds of other participants in front of the Federal Reserve Bank on Water Street before 10 a.m. as a light rain fell.”

Can you imagine if the Klan marched in a President’s Day or Fourth of July parade? Then again, I doubt any rational person would allow them to participate.

Troy Record:

“After a lengthy hiatus through the holidays, testimony resumed Thursday before an extended grand jury hearing evidence of alleged voter fraud against two Democratic officials.

It is unclear when the 23-member panel will vote on whether to file criminal charges against Councilman Michael LoPorto or county Democratic Election Commissioner Edward McDonough, both of whom are accused of major roles in a scandal that saw dozens of absentee ballots fraudulently cast in the Sept. 15, 2009 Working Families Party primary election.”