San Marcos - Buda - Kyle Edition | January 2022

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for keeping splintering of the commu- nity to a minimum. Two U.S. House seats were added to Texas due to 16% population growth over the past decade, according to cen- sus data. Each districtmust landwithin plus or minus 10% of the average size of a district if each had an even distri- bution of the population, according to the legal requirements listed on the Texas redistricting website. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, RAustin, the incumbent for District 21, will run for re-election in that district, which now covers more of Hays County. This pushes District 25, currently repre- sented by U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, RAustin, out of the county. District 35 will be represented by a new face as incumbent U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, DAustin, is opting to run in a new district in Travis County—District 37, which was created as a result of the total increase in state population. “Hays County is in this weird posi- tion where it’s not getting any of the competitive districts that are asso- ciated with suburbs and exurbs in between Austin and San Antonio,” said Jesse Crosson, professor of political sci- ence at Trinity University in San Anto- nio. “Instead, it’s getting in these what we would call packed districts where you try to pack as many partisans as possible into the same district to make it safe for the incumbent,” he said. Contesting the redistricting process The political nature of the process is not reserved just at the local level. The process of creating the maps in the Texas Legislature brought resis- tance from various groups concerned the process would not result in an equitable reection of where new population growth occurred in the state, said Miguel Rivera, a voting

From 2010-20, Hays County grew by more than 53%, from 157,107 residents to 241,067, the fastest- growing county in the nation with more than 100,000 people, according to U.S. census data. Since 2010, the population of residents of color in the county has increased but not at the rate of the population of Texas overall. DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

HAYS COUNTY

TEXAS

Hays County added 83,960

Texas added nearly

4MILLION RESIDENTS

RESIDENTS

between 2010 and 2020.

Roughly 48.35%

Roughly 95%

of that population growth came from people of color.

SOURCES: TEXAS LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, U.S. CENSUSCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

PLANNING TO VOTE

rights coordinator for the Texas Civil Rights Project. “So we know that in Texas over the past 10 years, the state’s population grew by 4 million people, and that 95% of that growth was from people of color. And despite that, the maps ... don’t actively increase the districts that represent these new communi- ties,” Rivera said. Those allegations are in line with a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit brought against the state of Texas on Dec. 6 alleging “vote dilution,” or spreading voters of color around several districts to reduce their vot- ing power. If that could be proven in court, it would be a violation of Sec- tion 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, according to the lawsuit. “I think there was a tactic as a part of a larger strategy that we saw in ger- rymandering from the state govern- ment this time around,” Rivera said. While the redistricting process could also be challenged on a parti- san basis, Crosson said that histori- cally is a losing argument. “The Supreme Court has

consistently said, ‘while we don’t love the partisan stu, it’s probably consti- tutional. You know, it’s just politicians being politicians,’ and the Supreme Court generally just tries to stay out of situations like that,” Crosson said. Voter turnout in presidential elec- tions is always higher in swing states than states not at risk for changing support of a political party, Crosson said. If more congressional seats are considered safe, he said it is less likely voters will show up. “The bigger takeaway is we’ve got more safe districts, especially in this region, than we’ve had in a very long time … In political science, we call it the case of vanishing marginals. There’s just fewer and fewer what we would call purple districts. That’s the direction it seems like Texas is headed—in the direction California is already in. So we shall see,” he said.

Elections at the federal, state and local levels with the new districts will be happening in 2022. Important election dates are listed below.

PRIMARY ELECTION

JAN. 31 FEB. 14-25 MARCH 1

Voter registration deadline

Early voting period

Election day

PRIMARY RUNOFF ELECTION

APRIL 25 MAY 16-20 MAY 24

Voter registration deadline

Early voting period

Election day

GENERAL ELECTION

OCT. 11 OCT. 24- NOV. 4 NOV. 8

Voter registration deadline

Zara Flores contributed to this report.

Early voting period

Election Day

For more information, visit communityimpact.com .

SOURCE: TEXAS SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

SAN MARCOS BUDA KYLE EDITION • JANUARY 2022