Texas Redistricting Maps: Supreme Court Orders Released
Photo Source: http://www.supremecourt.gov
Looks like it is back to square one for Texans.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court shared their ruling saying no to the redistricting maps . You can read the order here.
Texas is still without maps for the primary elections this spring, possibly resulting in elections that will be held later than April 3rd.
What are your thoughts? How does this affect the voter morale, in your opinion? Will voters be discouraged to get out and vote in the primary?
Mark Your Calendar: Executive Committee Meeting Notice for Tarrant County Republican Party
TARRANT COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY
Executive Committee Meeting Notice
Monday, January 30, 2012
6:30 p.m. Social
7:00 p.m. Meeting
Location:
CALVARY CHRISTIAN ACADEMY
School Cafeteria
1401 Oakhurst Scenic Dr.
Fort Worth, Texas 76111
Please park in the front of the school, outside the fence. Or in the South Church parking lot.
Business Agenda:
- Opening Prayer and Pledge to the Flag
- Announcements
- Treasurer’s Report
- Fill vacancies in Executive Committee membership, if quorum is present
- Ratification of Appointive Officers, Area Leaders, and Standing Committee Chairmen
- Other Business, as allowed by the Executive Committee
Upon adjournment of the County Executive Committee meeting, the precinct chairs from each Senatorial District shall meet to elect their chairmen (for districts situated entirely in the county) or a precinct chair from their membership to serve on the District Executive Committee (for districts situated in more than one county) (Texas Election Code Sec. 171.051 – 171.054). If the Senate District lines are not yet finalized, the Senate District meetings shall be postponed subject to the call of the County Chair.
You can read the announcement in it’s entirety here.
Republican Party of Texas Files Advisory with U.S. Supreme Court
Below is information about the advisory filed on January 11, 2012, by The Republican Party of Texas with the United States Supreme Court informing them of the adverse consequences of moving a unified 2012 Texas Primary Election beyond early to mid April.
You can download the advisory here.
In stating the reason behind the advisory, RPT State Chairman Steve Munisteri said, “The RPT became concerned that the Supreme Court was under the mistaken impression that it was workable to hold a unified primary as late as June 26th. This concern arose from questioning of counsel by Justices Alito and Sotomayor at Monday’s Supreme Court hearing on Texas redistricting. A review of the transcripts of the hearing confirmed that the Justices had indeed been told that a Texas Primary as late as June 26th was workable.”
Munisteri continued, “In fact, as noted in my previous Chairman’s Report (see link here) it is impossible to have a single unified primary on June 26th and to still comply with our Texas Election Code. The reason is that the Election Code requires the Parties to have a state convention in June or July and then further mandates a process of selecting delegates to those conventions over a several weeks period of time. This requirement, combined with the time it takes to organize a state convention, would make it impossible to hold a primary as late as June 26th, and still have a convention in a timely fashion. In addition, it is not practically possible to reschedule either party’s state convention, which are scheduled for June 7-9 for the RPT, and June 8-9 for the Texas Democratic Party. The reason for this is that you have to line up a convention facility sometimes years in advance, and the State Party has already contracted with the Fort Worth Convention Center and surrounding hotels.”
The Chairman continued, “In addition to the the Party’s convention problems, there are other practical problems why a June 26th primary is unworkable. An immediate concern is the reported jump in cost to the taxpayers as a large number of polling locations in Texas are school facilities. While these locations are normally free in the spring, they would not be available in the summer, and/or there would be a charge to utilize them. Another looming problem is manpower – many of the workers required to hold the elections, have no doubt already planned for summer vacations during that time, or will be forced to obtain child care or weigh other conflicting considerations. Furthermore, it is also expected that voting during the summer months would lower voter turnout, to say nothing of the fact that the Presidential Primary will be of little or no importance on June 26th, as opposed to April 3rd. For these reasons, the State Party felt compelled to take the extraordinary step of forwarding an advisory to the U.S. Supreme Court to raise these issues. I would like to make particular note of the help we received from Austin attorney Chris Ward of the firm Yetter Coleman LLP in drafting the advisory. Chris generously donated his work pro bono, and we are very grateful for his service.”
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