When the Texas Legislature meets in 2021, lawmakers are expected to take on the complicated and contentious process of redistricting — the decennial redrawing of maps for the state’s congressional, legislative and State Board of Education boundaries.
Who voters can elect at the national, statewide and even local levels depends on which district they live in. And the way those district maps are drawn often decides which party controls the national and state legislative bodies— and the maps will remain in use for as long as 10 years.
Politicians have the power to group voters in a way will give them a partisan advantage as long as they are not discriminating on the basis of race.
Republicans will control that process in 2021. But the mapmaking will be complicated and challenging, given the state's recent demographic shifts, the inevitable legal battles and the fact that it will be happening in the middle of a pandemic.
Every 10 years, a U.S. census is conducted to count every resident in the country. After that, state and local governments use the new population data to draw new congressional and state legislative maps.
The point is to draw roughly equally populated districts to reflect population growth and guarantee equal voter representation.
The Texas Legislature has a fixed number of seats — 31 in the Senate and 150 in the House. So Texas’ legislative districts change every 10 years, but the total number of lawmakers doesn’t.
But the number of Texas congressional districts can change every 10 years relative to the state’s share of the U.S. population. Texas has grown faster than most other states over the last decade, adding close to 4 million people since 2010.
That means the state’s allotted U.S. House seats will likely grow to 38 or 39 — up from 36 current seats.
The State Board of Education, state appeals court districts and some local governmental bodies like city councils, county commissioners courts and school district boards will undergo redistricting in 2021, too. The local boundaries are drawn by local governments.
For U.S. House districts, populations must be close to equal, while Texas House and Senate districts may deviate by up to 10% from the ideal district population, which is the number of residents if all districts were populated equally.
During the session, the Senate and House Redistricting Committees, each made up of 15 members, must work together to redraw the maps fairly and equally. They’ll also work alongside expert mapmakers and the Texas Legislative Council and receive input from the public.