When will Texans head to the polls in 2018? That might be up in the air

Thousands of Tarrant County voters may have more choices — or maybe fewer — when they head to the polls next year, after a ruling this week.

The federal ruling calls for nine Texas House districts, including two in Tarrant County, to be redrawn before the 2018 mid-term elections. The ripple effect of that could change a number of House districts and, in some extreme cases, even bump candidates out of the district they had planned to seek.

Now lawmakers, candidates and election officials are at somewhat of a standstill until they know whether an appeal of the ruling will be successful or whether the court will move forward and redraw the boundaries.

“This creates a mess,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “There’s not much time.”

Candidates may file to be on the 2018 primary ballot between Nov. 11-Dec. 11. But the recent ruling raises a few questions:

▪ Will the state’s appeal be successful? If it is, that means no changes to the map even though judges said nine districts — including House District 90, represented by Democrat Ramon Romero Jr. of Fort Worth, and District 93, represented by Republican Matt Krause of Fort Worth — should be redrawn because of deliberate discrimination by lawmakers.

▪ What districts will be impacted? If judges move forward with a new map, that likely will shift boundary lines in more than just nine districts.

▪ Can this be resolved before filing begins for next year’s primary? Or will justices push back the primary, as they did in 2012 because of challenges to legislative and congressional maps? In 2012, there was rampant voter confusion after the primary election was moved from March to May. The traditional May runoff shifted to late July.

Some election officials say they need to know what maps are in place by October in order to move forward with the 2018 elections as scheduled.

For now, “we are in a holding pattern,” said Stephen Vickers, Tarrant County’s elections administrator. “There hasn’t been a directive sent out by the state yet.

“We are still playing the waiting game.”

Texas primary elections currently are scheduled for March 6, 2018.

Court rulings

The 83-page ruling this week was the latest development in a years-long challenge of the district maps.

At issue first was the 2011 map, which was was redrawn by the court for the 2012 elections and slightly revamped by lawmakers in 2013.

This ruling came on the heels of a separate ruling that said two Texas congressional districts — the 27th and 35th — were discriminatory and also needed to be redrawn.

Both rulings noted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton needed to determine whether the Legislature would reconvene to fix the problems. State leaders have not indicated they want another special session to address the maps.

Paxton has said he will appeal.

District 90

Several pages of the court ruling in the Texas House districts noted work done in 2013 by former state Rep. Lon Burnam — who was defeated by Romero the following year — to address issues in his district from the earlier redrawing.

The Fort Worth Democrat wanted to return Lake Como, a local African-American community, to his district after it had been removed.

As a result, one of the challenges to the map was that “Burnam returned Como to HD90 to protect himself against a Latino challenger in the Democratic primary, and thus to intentionally dilute Latino voting strength,” the ruling states.

“They assert that the heavily African-American community of Como was not likely to support a Latino challenger, that Burnam knew this, and that Burnam wanted Como back at least in part for that reason.”

Romero, who bested Burnam in 2014 by 110 votes, plans to head to San Antonio Sept. 5-6 for court hearings where the redrawing of the state’s congressional and state House map are to begin.

“They have to be redrawn,” Romero said. “I have no idea what they are going to do or what map they are going to go by.

“It will remain a Latino opportunity district that shouldn’t have it’s power diluted.”

This district includes several inner-city areas such as Worth Heights, Polytechnic Heights, Como, Edgewood and portions of some Northside neighborhoods.

“Personally, I love District 90 just the way it is,” Romero said. “I think everyone in my district ... has gotten to know me and knows what I’m about.

“Clearly I’m going to continue to represent District 90,” he said. “I think I represent Fort Worth well.”

District 93

Very little in the 83-page ruling addressed concerns in House District 93, which stretches from north central Fort Worth through north Arlington and includes the stadiums for both the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers.

But the ruling says the current map worked to “shore up the Anglo population of HD93,” particularly as changes were being made to HD 90, prompting “intentional discrimination.”

After reading the court ruling, Krause, elected in 2012, said he was surprised his district was included.

He has faith in the appeal that Paxton has filed, even though Paxton has lost several recent appeals on voter rights cases.

“I’m in a wait-and-see mode,” Krause said. “I have a lot of confidence in the Attorney General’s office and the Governor’s office.”

If the appeal is successful, the districts would stay the same. If it’s not, boundary lines could change a little or a lot.

“I don’t think anybody can predict with any certainty what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m not too concerned, upset or worried at this point.”

But as for next year, Krause said, “the only thing you can predict at this point is the unpredictable.”

This story was originally published August 25, 2017 at 1:43 PM with the headline "When will Texans head to the polls in 2018? That might be up in the air."