GALVESTON
Galveston County will turn to a controversial political consultant to help commissioners redraw voting precinct lines later this year.
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(26) comments
Redistricting should be a non-partisan process. There are plenty of software tools these days that allow precinct maps to be drawn using non-political parameters - geography, zoning, census data, etc. And I imagine that the county could find a non-partisan consultant to show them how to use it. What are county Republicans afraid of, I wonder? Voters?
Bailey - I think you and should go together in and make an offer to do this for half price - $40k. And we could come up with something non-partisan and defensible. No need to get a DC political hack to come gerrymander things down here.
And we could do it in a weekend.
Not being politicians neither of you are qualified.
Based on their previous posts, obviously not qualified.
There is no redistricting plan that will satisfy everyone. Face it, Bailey. Democrats are the minority party in Galveston County. You would not be happy unless Democrats controlled every precinct in the county and that is not going to happen. The numbers aren't there.
Minorities - political or otherwise - are entitled under the constitution to equal justice and equal representation. I don't know why you can't grasp this simple concept.
Can Bailey not grasp the idea the US Supreme court found it was legal in Rucho v. Common Cause?
Expect more Republican ideas on voter suppression
That's George Laiacona's lie and he's sticking to it![yawn][sleeping]
Redistricting to benefit your own political party is a nationwide occurrence. Everyone does it and SCOTUS had a chance to address it last year and punted - SCOTUs seems to punt on a lot of important issues under Roberts....
What concerned me in this article was this "Hofeller and Oldham also were connected to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to exclude non-citizens from the 2020 Census."
Why would you include non-citizens in a census? If 10,000 Mexicans rushed the border on the day you counted, would you include them in the census? If we had an army of occupation would you include that foreign army's soldiers?
I agree that all parties do it. That doesn't mean that partisan gerrymandering is right - it means that all political parties are wrong. I have also been disappointed in the SC's unwillingness to address this.
As for why would you count non-citizens, it's because the constitution requires "counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed". The requirement is not citizenship, it's whether you pay taxes - since the main purpose of the census is for apportioning representatives and the founders believed in "no taxation without representation." If we had a system that exempted non-citizens from paying taxes, "citizens" would be the correct category to count. But we don't - non-citizens pay taxes just like the rest of us, and so need to be considered when apportioning representatives.
"That doesn't mean that partisan gerrymandering is right...." But the US Supreme Court says it is legal.
Norman> The census is required to determine how many voters live and where they live. Non citizens are not voters and should not be counted. Liberals want non citizens counted because the number of people in a state determines the states electoral college deligates. If non citizens are counted a state with a lot of non citizens will get extra EC votes. Pure election fraud.
Gary, Gary, Gary - "representation" and "voting" are two different things. Representatives are expected to represent the residents of their district regardless of sex, age, race, or citizenship. Who gets to elect those representatives is a whole 'nother matter - and has always been entirely about sex, age, race, and citizenship. That's why the census has always counted women even though they couldn't vote. That's why the census has always counted children even though they couldn't vote. That's why the census has always counted slaves even though they didn't even get a 3/5 vote equal to their 3/5ths of a person count. Because the purpose of the census is to count "persons", not voters. When the nation was founded, only a small percentage of the population could vote (white men with property). What kind of census only counts a percentage of the population? Besides, the standard census form does not even ask if you are registered to vote.
If the number of congressmen and electoral votes each state is apportioned had depended on the number of residents there who could vote - states would have rushed to enact universal suffrage. History shows us that they did not.
"Why would you include non-citizens in a census..."??? Hello! Norman, that's a no brainer. Whether citizens or not, you need to know where people are. Taken to an extreme example, if you had a town of 10 US Citizens and 4,000 non-citizens, your state and federal governments need to know that information. 4,010 people are going to be drawing water from the local water system that may impact other cities downstream. Same scenario for draws on power, and basic infrastructure needs such as road and bridges, wear and tear issues on infrastructure, etc... That would be incredibly stupid to ignore that people are actually there, whether they are citizens or not. They will still impact everyone else in that jurisdiction.
It is expected that the census and redistricting will shift at least ten congressional seats from blue states to red states. It is the result of citizens ( voters ) moving from blue states to red states over the last ten years. Texas, Florida, Arizona will gain the most seats. California, New Jersey, Ilinoise and New York will be the big losers.
It has nothing to do with voters, Gary. Or citizens. Only people.
Another waste of taxpayer money to benefit only these desperate power grabbers.
A very distasteful and underhanded process.
$80,000.00 of underhanded distastefulness.
Wasn’t the “Hammer “ the last Republican that made sure the Republicans had the advantage? Because of January 6th the Republicans have to use any tactic they can to have an advantage for the next election. Right now they have the majority in the county so they have to use it to their best advantage.
"Wasn’t the 'Hammer' the last Republican that made sure the Republicans had the advantage?" Hank Aaron was Republican?
No Carlos, not that hammer. I think he means the convicted money laundering republican U.S. house leader from Sugarland. That hammer.
I’ve also got a 5lb sledge in my tool shed nick named “Tommy Boy” if you need to drive a stake or two.
Only a 5lb hammer? I've got a 16 pounder but Home Depot will sell you a 20 pounder. But if 5lb works for you.....
Pffffftt!! Well this really makes my husband and me want to pay our property tax. 🙄 The county could have found someone cheaper, less partisan and corrupt and whose last attempt to gerrymander our county wasn’t partially stymied by the US Justice Dept. Let’s reward the overpriced gerrymanderer with another contract. Gotta love Mark Henry and the Commissioners Court!
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