Denton County Residents Deserve a Say in Local Redistricting
By Joanna Cattanach
The redistricting process in Texas has been described as a lot of things, but transparent isn’t one of them. The same is true in Denton County, where county commissioners are expected to draw new maps establishing the boundaries for the next 10 years for commissioners, constables and justices of the peace.
The lack of a public local redistricting in Denton County is why I and other members of the community have requested a timeline, meeting schedule, accessible application and more from our local commissioners and county judge.
The redistricting process is supposed to include public input, reflect population changes and maintain communities of interest, but with candidate filing deadlines approaching, time is ticking, and the steps to establish a process for public input remain unclear in Denton County.
There have been no public hearings. There is no redistricting committee yet established despite its listing on the county website. Meanwhile, neighboring Dallas and Tarrant counties have already begun hearings and community meetings hosted by commissioners inviting public input and map previews including drawing sessions.
It’s late October, and we are still asking for basic information from Denton County officials on how to file a handwritten application for a redistricting committee that has yet to really exist. It’s unclear how these committee members will be chosen, what they’ll consider and how the community can have input before the maps are finished.
It’s not surprising. After a year of statewide public meetings, voting and debate in Austin over state and federal maps often occurred in the dead of the night. I offered my testimony opposing the proposed legislative maps via car speakerphone southbound on the Dallas North Tollway after six hours spent on hold in a Zoom waiting room.
Most community members affected by the new district lines will never get a chance to testify and may never understand how densely populated minority-majority precincts in the southernmost portions of Denton County are now drawn into rural, white communities on the western edges. Ask yourself, what do Black and Latino residents in apartments neighboring Dallas County have in common with residents in Draper, Texas, with a population of 27 people? What kind of representation can Denton residents expect from a congressman whose district stretches to Amarillo?
Elected officials who say they want your vote should also value your input. Instead, Austin map makers snaked through streets, around houses and divided school districts separating longstanding neighborhood ties to gain partisan advantages in what is considered nationally as some of the most egregious examples of gerrymandering this cycle.
This “cracking, stacking and packing” of voters is a procedure meant to protect incumbent elected officials by diluting votes whose numbers threaten an incumbent’s chance of reelection.
It’s meant to further a political party’s chance for a decade of dominance, not good governance.
Denton County commissioners and County Judge Andy Eads, as well as elections administrators, have a chance to get it right at the county level this year. I urge them to include the community in the redistricting process now. Democracy isn’t what happens in a court-ordered deposition after the maps are drawn.
It’s what happens when diverse and inclusive community members in Denton County have a chance to ask questions and get answers from their elected representatives and county administrators to better understand how government works for them and how they can affect real change in their community for the next decade.
Joanna Cattanach is a writer, educator and advocate in Carrollton. She is co-chair of the Denton County Democratic Party Redistricting Committee.
