In the political battles over voting rights in Texas frequently the accusation is made that redistricting and voter ID are driven by attempts to reduce the impact of minority voters in the state. It’s a charge that the Republicans behind the laws and maps flatly deny. However a new book “Latinos and the Voting Rights Act,” builds a case that voter ID and redistricting are designed exactly to reduce Hispanic voter outcomes.
The author is Henry Flores, a professor of political science and international relations at St. Mary’s University.
About the book (Summary by Rowman & Littlefield)
This volume explores the role race and racism played in the Texas redistricting process and the creation and passage of the state’s Voter Identification Law in 2011. The author puts forth research techniques designed to uncover racism and racist intentions even in the face of denials by the public policy decision makers involved. In addition to reviewing the redistricting history of the state, this book also provides an analysis of court decisions concerning the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, the Voting Rights Act, and a thorough discussion of theShelby County decision. The author brings together scholarly research and the analysis of significant Supreme Court decisions focusing on race to discuss Texas’ election policy process. The core of the book centers on two federal court trials where both the state’s congressional, house redistricting efforts, and the Voter ID Bill were found to violate the Voting Rights Act. This is the first book that speaks specifically to the effects of electoral politics and Latinos. The author develops new ground in racial political studies calling for movement beyond the 'dual-race' theoretical models that have been used by both the academy and the courts in looking at the effects of race on the public policy process. The author concludes that the historically tense race relations between Anglos and Latinos in Texas unavoidably affected both the redistricting process and the creation and design of the Voter ID Bill.
