Texas Galveston County Redistricting Challenge (NAACP)

Lawsuit filed by Dickinson Bay Area Branch NAACP, Galveston Branch NAACP, Mainland Branch NAACP and Galveston League of United Latin American Citizens Council 151 against Galveston County, a county judge and a county election official challenging the Galveston County Commissioners Court precincts drawn using 2020 census data. The new map eliminated the only precinct in the county where Black and Latino residents of Galveston County could elect the candidate of their choice. The plaintiffs argue that the map drawers intentionally created a discriminatory and racially gerrymandered redistricting plan in which all four precincts are predominantly white, thereby denying Black and Latino voters the ability to elect candidates of their choice in any district. The lawsuit alleges that this intentionally discriminatory map — in which race was predominantly used to draw the precinct lines to “crack Black and Latino” voters across the county’s four precincts — violates the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs also claim that the enacted map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by “denying Black and Latino voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice by diluting their voting strength.” The plaintiffs ask the court  to declare the map in violation of the U.S. Constitution and VRA and block Galveston County from holding elections using the new map.

The case was consolidated with two others challenging Galveston County’s redistricting plan; the lead case where future filings can be found is Petteway v. Galveston County.

Last updated: July 29, 2022 4:37 pm EST