Unless the legal combatants can agree on a map of districts by Feb. 6, Texas voters should be prepared to come to the polls twice during the primaries.
A panel of three federal judges in San Antonio is trying to create a new map of voting districts acceptable to plaintiffs who sued in objection to and the state Attorney General defending the map approved last summer by the Legislature.
The panel’s own voting district maps were sent back to San Antonio for retooling by the Supreme Court on Friday. And to make things even more complicated, another federal judicial panel, this one in the District of Columbia, is holding hearings weighing the legitimacy of the original legislative map.
Time is not an ally of any of the parties involved. The San Antonio judges have asked to meet with all of the aggrieved Friday to see if a map can be agreed upon to preserve an April 3 primary that has already been pushed back a month, the Texas Tribune is reporting today.
The panel said it will most likely push back the deadline for candidates filing for office from Feb. 1, but did not suggest a new date.
Without some agreement, the judges suggested holding only a presidential primary on April 3, leaving the state’s political parties to continue to quarrel over a second primary for congressional and state candidates sometime before their state conventions in June.
The panel’s own voting district maps were sent back to San Antonio for retooling by the Supreme Court on Friday. And to make things even more complicated, another federal judicial panel, this one in the District of Columbia, is holding hearings weighing the legitimacy of the original legislative map.
Time is not an ally of any of the parties involved. The San Antonio judges have asked to meet with all of the aggrieved Friday to see if a map can be agreed upon to preserve an April 3 primary that has already been pushed back a month, the Texas Tribune is reporting today.
The panel said it will most likely push back the deadline for candidates filing for office from Feb. 1, but did not suggest a new date.
Without some agreement, the judges suggested holding only a presidential primary on April 3, leaving the state’s political parties to continue to quarrel over a second primary for congressional and state candidates sometime before their state conventions in June.
***
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feeds in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, and tumblr.
Photo of 'vote here' sign by flickr user lakelandlocal, used via a Creative Commons license.
Contact Mark Lisheron at 512-299-2318 or mark@texaswatchdog.org or on Twitter at @marktxwatchdog.
Keep up with all the latest news from Texas Watchdog. Fan our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Scribd, and fan us on YouTube. Join our network on de.licio.us, and put our RSS feeds in your newsreader. We're also on MySpace, Digg, FriendFeed, and tumblr.
Photo of 'vote here' sign by flickr user lakelandlocal, used via a Creative Commons license.
Comments
RSS feed
StumbleUpon
Twitter
Newsvine
Facebook
Digg
De.licio.us
YouTube
