Every 10 years, political bodies across the U.S. go through the process
of reconciling population changes...
SPLC sues Louisiana city on behalf of NAACP, challenging
unfair voting map
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Dwayne Fatherree Read the full piece here
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Friend,
Every 10 years, political bodies across the U.S. go through the process of reconciling population changes detected in the latest census with district maps that govern how voters elect public
officials.
Sometimes populations grow in some districts and shrink in others as people take on new jobs, start new families or follow trends in migration. The reapportionment of districts is supposed to ensure that voters maintain equal power at the ballot box, regardless of where
they live.
In Abbeville, Louisiana, voting rights advocates have spent years trying to get the City Council to redraw its districts to comply with the legal requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 14th Amendment. But that has not happened.
Instead, after the 2020 census, the city kept a map based on the 2010 census - when the Black population was just over 40% - that has just one Black-majority district out of four districts, even
though Black people now make up nearly 43% of the city's residents. During the same period, the white population fell from 53% to 49%.
In Abbeville, as elsewhere, the makeup of voting maps can have a very tangible impact on the lives of voters. Local officials determine everything from whether a street is paved
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to how far someone has to travel to visit a park or playground - and how well maintained those public works might be.
"There's a complete difference or two different worlds in the city of Abbeville," said Linda Cockrell, president of the Vermilion Parish NAACP chapter in Abbeville. "I was told that in
the higher-up neighborhoods, city workers are in these neighborhoods at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning washing down the roads, removing trash, and everything else."
Frustrated by the city's action, the NAACP chapter, represented
by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has filed suit
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in federal court to force the city to adopt a more balanced voting map. The lawsuit cites the principle of "one person, one vote" that is laid out in the 14th Amendment and requires
districts within a political subdivision to be roughly equal in population.
Read More
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