Tarrant County filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by citizens claiming the county engaged in racial gerrymandering when they approved a map with new precinct boundaries on June 3.
The motion argues the court overseeing the case does not have jurisdiction over the matter, the districts being changed are not protected under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and no evidence of racial intent in the redistricting process was provided.
The county in the motion claims they were redistricting purely to increase the Republican majority on the court from 3-2 to 4-1, drawing out Precinct 2 County Commissioner Alisa Simmons. She is up for reelection next year.
State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, announced his intention to run for the seat.
“Tarrant County adopted a redistricting plan that from conception to enactment was an unambiguous, explicit and unabashed effort to increase Republican power and decrease Democratic power on the Commissioners Court,” according to the motion.
The plaintiffs — those bringing forth the lawsuit — claim the district map approved by the court disenfranchises Black and Latino voters by packing them into more white districts, diluting their vote.
Democratic commissioners Simmons and Roderick Miles Jr. had the UCLA Voting Rights Project analyze the precinct maps. That analysis found all the redistricted maps were “drawn based on racial characteristics and all proposed maps overly concentrate (pack) Black and Hispanic residents into a single district.”
The motion claims the map commissioners approved, called Map 7, still over-represents the Black population because 25% of the precincts would be represented by commissioner Miles, who is Black, while 19% of the county’s population is Black.
“Plaintiffs imply that any scenario where Democrats lose power is racially motivated even though Black elected officials still hold a disproportionate number of district seats on Commissioners Court,” the motion claims.
KERA News reached out to Tarrant County Commissioner Simmons and County Judge Tim O’Hare for comment and will update this story with their response.
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