Redistricting Lawyers Reach Deal on Texas Senate Maps
Update, 2:10 p.m.: The primaries won't be held until May 29, the judges said after a brief recess. Judge Jerry Smith said an April date appears to be impossible, and asked the lawyers for the political parties and the Secretary of State to pull together details for filing deadlines and such assuming May 29 will be the date. He also said that it's not a certainty; they still don't have all the maps they need to hold an election.
Original story:
SAN ANTONIO — Redistricting foes reached agreement on a statewide map for Texas Senate elections ...
Comments (9)
Mike Openshaw via Texas Tribune on Facebook
So this entire Voting Rights Act court case comes down to trying to protect ANGLO incumbents (because they're Democrats)??? This is just priceless!
WUSRPH
A May/June primary and run-off puts us back where Texas was in 1960 when LBJ got the Legislature to change the primary from July/August to May/June so that he could be sure all the Texas delegates to the Democratic National Convention were elected in time for him to run for President....It was changed to March only when somone thought Texas might be able to influence the nominations of both parties by having a presidential preference primary....That has not worked out too well has it?
jpt51
I hope the Fed. Courts slam Republicans for dividing up Travis Co like a pie. It’s time to demand the Ledge implement an independent redistricting commission to select future congressional and legislative districts. Arizona and Washington states have them and they seem to work, even though Gov. Jan Brewer tried to manipulate theirs. The Arizona Supreme Court reinstated the chairperson showing law trumps politics. Texas ought to try a fair election for a change.
Bologna Vest
The day after Memorial Day should have great turnout! </sarcasm>
nml hats
May 29th is a STUPID date to hold a primary, considering how many people may be out of town, tacked onto their day off for Memorial Day (28th). May 22nd would be a lot better, if you actually want ppl to vote. Clearly no one was actually looking at a calendar.
jimrtex
"May 29th is a STUPID date to hold a primary, considering how many people may be out of town, tacked onto their day off for Memorial Day (28th). May 22nd would be a lot better, if you actually want ppl to vote. Clearly no one was actually looking at a calendar. "
Texas has local elections on May 12.
A May 22 election would mean that early voting would start on May 8. The main reason that possible dates skipped from April 17 to May 29 was because of the local elections.
But they haven't looked at the rest of the calendar. Election officials need about 70 days between elections. They have to canvass the results, including processing provisional ballots, and then prepare the ballots, which have to be sent overseas 45 days before an election.
So that puts the runoff on August 7. Independent candidates have 30 after the runoff to collect signatures, which is September 6. Let's give the counties 2 weeks to verify the signatures, and another 70 days until the general election, which will be November 29, the week after Thanksgiving.
gypsy314 ne
I hope the people vote all these liberals out of office just to set things right Wendy Davis must go. I say remove all democrats from office to set things right since they do not understand this is a red state. As to Hispanics the census was flawed and democrats know it they sign up Illegal aliens to be counted and they are not American citizens.
Anyone But Obama and democrats!
jimrtex
"It’s time to demand the Ledge implement an independent redistricting commission to select future congressional and legislative districts. Arizona and Washington states have them and they seem to work, even though Gov. Jan Brewer tried to manipulate theirs. The Arizona Supreme Court reinstated the chairperson showing law trumps politics. Texas ought to try a fair election for a change."
The legislative districts drawn by the Arizona commission after the 2000 census were thrown out in court, and the congressional map included a district connected by the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Tourists from around the world would come to see this natural wonder. They would stand on a scenic overlook in District 1, look across the canyon to see another part of the district, as the park ranger explained that they would have to drive 100s of miles to get there and stay in the district, they could then peer down into the canyon and see District 2 far below.
This year, the "independent" on the independent redistricting commission may not have been so independent. In 2010 she contributed to the campaign of someone who is now chair of the Democratic Party, and her husband was campaign treasurer for another Democratic candidate.
jimrtex
If the precinct conventions are decoupled from the primary, there is no reason not to hold them March 6*, the original primary date; and hold the county/senatorial district conventions on the 3rd Saturday following, March 24.
These conventions have nothing to do with the nominations for the general election; they are all about party business, including selecting delegates to the state convention. Senatorial district conventions are actually just sub-county conventions for larger counties.
Precinct and county chairs are elected at the primary, but they do not take office until 20 days after the runoff (they have to be elected by majority). The precinct chair is the temporary chair of the precinct convention.
*Last legislative session, flexibility in the scheduling of the precinct conventions was increased, so that they can be held on any date through the Sunday following the primary. One reason for this was that the precinct chair was often involved in conducting the primary, and so either could not attend the precinct convention or would be late.
Texas also permits political parties to consolidate election precincts for their primaries and "precinct" conventions. Since they consolidate different precincts for the primary and the runoff; it would be reasonable to have a different consolidation for a standalone precinct convention.
If the Republicans wanted to conduct a straw poll at their precinct conventions that would be fine. The Democrats already conduct a binding poll at their precinct conventions which is used to apportion some of the national delegates - Clinton won the primary in 2008, but lost the separate poll taken at the precinct conventions.
The convention-nominating parties could also hold their precinct conventions on the date set in state law, the 2nd Tuesday in March (March 13, 2012). The precinct conventions do not nominate anyone, but do select delegates to subsequent conventions where nominations are made. The collection period for the supplementary petition for qualifying new parties begins the day after the precinct conventions.
Assuming the court orders interim legislative and congressional maps in the next few days, then the filing for all offices could run through say March 12. This is a reasonable amount of time for people to decide whether they want to run in the new districts, or stick with a local office.
It would give election officials 77 days before the primary (including sending overseas ballots 45 days).
It would also permit candidates for nomination by convention to file before the convention. Ordinarily, their deadline is a couple of months before the conventions, but such a long period is not needed when there are no ballots to prepare and send out in advance. In practice, candidates may withdraw their candidacy, and the party may extend the filing period up to just before the convention. For primary-nominating parties, if a candidate withdraws, there is only a few days of extended filing, so as to not disrupt ballot preparation.
But the real reason for the early filing is to prevent sore-losers in a primary from running as a candidate of a minor party. But if the nominations by the minor parties occurs before that for the major parties, there is no risk.
And if there aren't maps ready in the next few days, they can just be jettisoned from the May 29 primary.
A June 26 primary is simply too late. Assuming 70 days between the primary and the runoff, the runoff would be September 4.
Independent candidates have 30 days after the runoff to collect signatures, or October 4. Allow election officials 14 days to validate signatures and you are at October 18.
70 days to prepare for the general election and the general election is December 27.
Even a May 29 election would result in a November 29 general election. But election officials may be able to squeeze 3 weeks out of the schedule, a lot easier than they can squeeze 7 weeks.
So if election maps are not ready in the next week or two, the only thing to do is to conduct those elections as special elections in November.