The 2018 elections will move forward without any tweaks to Texas’ political maps. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold all but one of the state’s political districts, a three-judge federal panel in San Antonio on Tuesday ordered that the state’s maps should stay in place for this year’s elections despite outstanding issues with House District 90. The Tarrant County-based district was the sole exception the Supreme Court made in OK’ing the state’s maps last week. That district, which is held by Democratic state Rep. Ramon Romero, was deemed an impermissible racial gerrymander because lawmakers illegally used race as the predominant factor in deciding its boundaries.
It’s likely that opponents of the maps will push for the district to be redrawn, which could affect neighboring Republican-held districts. But as things stand now, the district will only be corrected in time for one election before it likely needs to be redrawn again after the 2020 census.
The San Antonio panel gave the state and the map’s challengers — civil rights groups, voters of color and Democratic lawmakers — until Aug. 6 to indicate to the court what changes, if any, should be made to HD-90. The court also issued a deadline of Aug. 29 for the parties to address any other issues that remain in this case.
Full Article: Texas elections to move forward without changes to state House district map despite racial gerrymander finding | The Texas Tribune.