Oct. 13 (UPI) — The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled Friday that a Galveston County, Texas, political redistricting plan violates the Voting Rights Act.
The court said it denies Black and Latino voters equal opportunity to participate in the political process.
The court gave Galveston County until Oct. 20 to “enact a redistricting plan that contains at least one district that provides Black and Latino voters with an equal opportunity to elect a candidate of choice to the county governing body.”
If the county doesn’t meet that deadline, the court ordered it to implement a redistricting plan “presented by the United States on or before Nov. 1.”
“This decision demonstrates that the Justice Department is vigorously enforcing the Voting Rights Act in communities across the country,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a statement.
He added, “The court recognized that the Galveston County Commissioners Court redistricting plan deprived the county’s Black and Latino voters of an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect a candidate of their choice. The Justice Department will continue to stand up for the right of every eligible citizen to vote and to have that vote counted.”
The court found that Galveston County eliminated an existing district that had existed for decades and even though Blacks and Latinos comprise 38% of the total population in the county.
The Commissioners Court is the governing body for Galveston County.
“The right to vote is one of the fundamental rights in our democracy, a right guaranteed irrespective of race or ethnicity, said U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas said in a statement. “This decision protects the rights of Black and Latino voters in Galveston County and affords them an equal opportunity to have a voice on the Galveston County Commissioners’ Court consistent with federal law.”
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement, “As the district court correctly found, destroying the only district with a majority of Black and Latino residents is a blatant violation of the Voting Rights Act.”
The Department of Justice said that the court held the county’s plan prevents Black and Latino voters from electing a candidate of their choice in any district. The court said that was “mean-spirited” and “egregious.”
The court concluded that the political redistricting plan also “extinguished the Black and Latino communities’ voice on its commissioners court,” the governing body of Galveston County.