SMU researcher says proposed Tarrant County redistricting 'diminishes' voting power
The Brief
Tarrant County commissioners are set to vote on new district maps within days, a process led by Republican County Judge Tim O'Hare.
Critics say the proposed maps violate racial protections in the Voting Rights Act by concentrating non-White voters into one district, diluting their voting power.
An SMU researcher's analysis appears to suggest the new maps may be biased against non-White voters.
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas - The Republican-led Tarrant County Commissioners Court is days away from voting to redraw district lines.
Critics say the proposed maps violate racial protections in the Voting Rights Act. Now, an SMU researcher is applying her own mathematical review to the maps.
The Latest
SMU mathematics professor and researcher Dr. Andrea Barreiro has dissected and analyzed the newly proposed maps for Tarrant County districts, the work of a county-hired consulting firm and the public legal interest foundation.
The researcher uses mathematics and technology to analyze the redistricting models. She says she was drawn to Tarrant County's current process as attention surrounding the topic began to grow. Barreiro looks for signatures of partisan and racial gerrymandering, she says.
The current process to redraw the county's lines is led by Republican County Judge Tim O'Hare.
At the center of the controversy are District 1, held by Commissioner Roderick Miles, and District 2, a seat now held by Commissioner Alisa Simmons, both Democrats.
What they're saying
"It looks like they made small modifications on this basic template where they swap the purple and the blue to get their desired outcome," Barreiro said.
Barreiro says a randomly unbiased generated map based on the latest census data would have 60 to 65 percent non-White voters in each of those districts.
"The proposed maps do something very different," Barreiro said. "They take a lot of those non-White voters in District 2, and they pack them into District 1, leaving District 2 to be majority White."
Barreiro uses advanced software, applying a method known as Markov Chain Analysis. Her experience using the same technology includes similar analysis her team prepared during the state legislative redistricting cycle.
"We have continued to reach out to Judge O'Hare for his response to allegations of racial gerrymandering by Simmons, Miles, as well as U.S. Congressman Marc Veasey and ten Tarrant County mayors," Barreiro said.
Barreiro stops short of making a legal opinion on whether the proposed maps violate state and federal law. She does say it is clear what the consultant map-maker's mission is.
"If black voters could be a large presence in two districts, but instead you pack all those people by picking your map cleverly, you get all those people into one district, then you diminish the voting power of that population," Barreiro said. "There are interesting methodological and mathematical questions about this whole process that I'm eager to explore, and I'm also just interested in basic fairness."
What's next
Late Thursday afternoon, O'Hare agreed to an interview with FOX 4. The meeting is set for Friday morning.
A vote on Tarrant County's redistricting process is set for Tuesday.
The backstory
The mayors of 10 Tarrant County cities, including Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield, and Grand Prairie, have signed a letter expressing their opposition to the proposed map.
The group called the effort ill-timed because it's the middle of the decade and, in their opinion, the census data from 2020 is outdated.
In early April, the commission voted three to two, with commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles opposing, to approve a contract with the Public Interest Legal Foundation to provide consultation with re-drawing district lines.
The Source
Information in this article came from SMU researcher Dr. Andrea Barreiro and previous FOX 4 reporting.
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