WHAT’S UP WITH ALL OF THE ELECTION DATE CHANGES?

For those who have been too busy to stop what they are doing and find out why dates pertaining to the 2012 primary elections have changed so much, here is s short catch up article.

There are two competing sets of redistricting maps setting out proposed two different sets of borders of election districts in Texas for the State Legislature and the House of Representatives on the basis of the most recent 10-year census.
One set of maps was drawn by the Legislature, which is controlled by Republicans. Those maps seem to favor Republican candidates. The other set was drawn by a special three-judge federal court in San Antonio, and it increases the voting power of Hispanic voters and seems to help Democratic candidates.

Four House seats hang in the balance and all that is affected by the particulars of state and U.S. congressional lines. The justices have told the Texas courts that the judges have overplayed their role and the role their court should play in redistricting and to go back and use the maps the people elected to the state legislature chose as a basis.

As a result of the Democrats pulling out every stop they can to get their way, the primaries in Texas had already been moved back to April. For those primaries to proceed, officials there said, an answer from the courts was needed by Feb. 1.
It seems Democrats like to have the right to gerrymander when they are the minority just like they did for years when they were the majority. Almost all redistricting maps that are changed are changed to prevent racial discrimination. Democrats try to get the courts to interpret discrimination as they should at least the same percentage of seats for blacks (and for Hispanics) as their percentage of the population. Most Republicans are not as likely to want to categorize people in terms of race or any other category to form special districts.
This decision by the Supreme Court is seen by Republicans as a win for those who believe elected officials rather than judges are the ones the Constitution says should draw the lines. But the Democrats challenge is still having all kinds of bizarre effects on the election. The date of the primary is still unsure and who might be qualified to run for the state Senate or the state House or the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House in an area is still dependent on how the lines are drawn. No ballots can be printed until county chairman know who can run for these offices on their ballot.

The only thing for sure if you are a Democrat running for office in almost every place but the border area, this argument your side just lost at the Supreme Court was about your only chance to win anything. No wonder no one ran for Democrat Party Chairman in Liberty County – ‘Turn Out The Lights, Nancy and John, The Party Is Over”!