AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is calling lawmakers back to Austin for another special session, and a key item on the agenda is redistricting, the redrawing of congressional and legislative district maps.

The process happens every 10 years, but was pushed back this year when the pandemic delayed the release of federal census data.

What You Need To Know

  • Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced a third special session of the 87th Texas Legislature 
  • Redistricting is one of the key items to be visited

  • Every 10 years, Texas lawmakers redraw the state’s congressional and legislative district lines that largely shape their chances of re-election

  • The goal is to adapt the maps as the population grows to make sure everyone’s vote counts equally

As lawmakers prepare to begin the work, the inherently political process is likely to be even more contentious. 

Once a decade, Texas lawmakers redraw the state’s congressional and legislative district lines that largely shape their chances of re-election. 

“There's no situation in which redistricting is not contentious because it is about how people's votes get translated into power. And when we have a partisan redistricting process, the criticism that's often leveled is it's not about voters choosing the representatives, it's about representatives choosing their voters," said Joshua Blank, research director at the Texas Politics Project. 

The goal is to adapt the maps as the population grows to make sure everyone’s vote counts equally, but that’s not always the outcome. 

“We’ve also seen this used as a tool to undermine the political influence of voters of color. That's certainly been the case in Texas," said Allison Riggs, chief counsel for Voting Rights with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. 

Riggs is a voting rights attorney who argued the Texas redistricting case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court after the legal battle over the last maps finally made it to the high court. 

“Ninety percent of the population growth in Texas was attributable to communities of color and zero out of the four new districts created new opportunities. It was a net zero for voters of color, which is problematic and why we litigated for the better part of the decade," said Riggs. 

Courts found that the Texas maps disenfranchised voters of color in every redistricting cycle since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.  

“Republican elected officials have generally drawn districts that favor them by taking a slice of an urban area and then marrying it with a large swath of suburban and rural territory," said Blank. 

The stakes are high, as Texas is set to gain two new congressional seats. 

According to the federal census, the state’s population grew by about 4 million people, the majority of whom are voters of color. 

But this year there will also be less oversight. 

After the Supreme Court stripped provisions out of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Texas will no longer have to run its new maps by the U.S. Department of Justice or a federal court to demonstrate they don’t disenfranchise voters of color. 

“If history is any guide, no matter what maps end up ultimately getting produced in the redistricting process there will be court cases, there will be legal challenges and we should expect that to go on for quite a while after the process is supposedly concluded," said Blank. 

Two Democratic state senators have already filed a lawsuit to block the process, saying that the Texas Constitution requires redistricting to be done during the first regular session after the census, not during a special session. 

They want a federal judge to draw interim maps for the state to use until lawmakers reconvene for the next regular session in 2023.