the texas state legislature working to
draw new districts to decide which
district you'll vote for in future
elections but some may not realize why
some district maps look so strange
tonight kvu's mike mcroot walked through
a south austin neighborhood that's
towing the line between three different
state senate districts
see this cat metro bus stop sign it's
kind of an unofficial marker for
dividing lines between three different
state senate districts i didn't know
through a neighborhood would be a
dividing area for sale signs dot the
lawns kids play in the yards this south
austin neighborhood is changing but some
who live here say it's one neighborhood
indivisible and should not be divided by
voting districts we are constituents of
the same space we do kind of similar
things similar family so
it would be ridiculous to have them be
with a different senator i think it
would probably make more sense to make
sure that you have like
a good representation of what the area
believes the scent districts being drawn
right now in some cases divide
neighborhoods see this black line that
i'm drawing that's obviously not on the
road here but it divides this block
in two so these neighbors have to vote
for a different state senator than these
neighbors unfortunately redistricting
gives
map drawers a chance to fiddle with the
process and to exclude rather than
include public testimony at friday's
senate special committee on
redistricting focused on how to draw
lines fairly whichever political party
controls the legislature essentially
gets to redraw the lines every 10 years
after the census they have to meet some
requirements such as even population
distribution and allowing the minority
political party to have proper
representation
and as the texas population continues to
swell neighborhoods like the one along
united kingdom drive become increasingly
important to both political parties
hoping to bolster their voters but these
voters neighbors families just want to
stick together if this gonna cause more
division you know across across people
that we're already so fragmented in the
state and everywhere else we don't want
to even neighborhoods now the micro
level begin to be fragmented
so even as the legislature works to
redraw these maps during the third
special session some state lawmakers say
this process shouldn't be allowed to
happen right now democrat state senators
sarah eckhart and roland gutierrez filed
a lawsuit this month they claim that the
texas constitution stops them from
redrawing districts outside of a regular
legislative session but the next regular
session won't actually happen until 2023
about two years from now maybe a year
and a half so they want courts to draw
interim maps for the next year's
election but as of now the legislature
is still moving ahead on drawing these
maps in this special session and the
senate will hear more public testimony
about those maps again starting tomorrow
at 9 00 a.m brian k views mike marut
live in the newsroom tonight mike thank
you
a lot of change with redistricting
lawmakers will draw new maps for
congressional seats state representative
seats state senate seats as mike talked
about there the factory they do factor
in things like population growth and
demographics taking a closer look at
these maps let's focus on the state
senate for this this is a look at the
statewide map as it stands currently now
this is the initial proposed map that
the state senate unveiled this past
saturday one of the big changes would
affect local politics district 24 would
no longer include travis county it would
stretch further south and wrap around to
include areas south of san antonio since
then we've seen an amendment to the map
so lawmakers may end up approving this
version that still keeps district 24 out
of travis county stretching south but
adds areas further west along interstate
10.
that's just one example of how these
maps could change who you vote for in
future elections keep in mind when it
comes to congressional maps texas will
get two more seats this year so state
lawmakers will have to find spots to add
those in