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TALKING POINTS
REPUBLICAN SENATE REDISTRICTING PLAN
CONSEQUENCES FOR MINORITIES
- "The Republican Senate redistricting plan violates the Voting
Rights Act because it intentionally dilutes minority influence throughout
the state by 'packing' minorities into a few selected districts and because
it uses unconstitutional racial gerrymandering to achieve this result.
- The Republican Plan seeks to limit the influence that minorities can
have on the political process over time by segregating and 'packing' African
Americans into a smaller number of political districts and reducing their
influence in the rest of the state.
- The Republicans have packed African Americans into 5 Senate districts
- where they are between 58.5% and 60.8% of the population. (If one counts
voting age population, African Americans comprise between 55% and 58.8%
of those packed Senate districts). There no Senate districts where African
Americans are between 32% and 58% of the population. This has reduced African
American influence in the rest of the Commonwealth.
- By 'packing,' the Republican plan will create a statewide system of
apartheid in Virginia.
- The Republican plan is illegal because it is designed to ensure the
political marginalization of minority groups and women statewide.
- The alternative offered by Senators Yvonne Miller and Mary Margaret
Whipple demonstrates that a redistricting plan that would comply with the
Voting Rights Act can be drawn without packing minorities into a few, segregated
voting districts and without diluting minority political influence. In
partisan elections, minorities can -- and do -- elect candidates of their
choice, even in districts where the minority voting population is less
than 50%.
- The Miller/Whipple Plan created more districts where racial groups
would have an opportunity to influence the political process in Virginia
than the Republican Plan. Under the Republican Plan, there are 7 districts
where minority groups constitute at least 40% of the population. Under
the Democratic Plan, there would have been 9 districts where minority groups
constitute at least 40% of the population.
- The Democrats have followed traditional race-blind redistricting criteria
(compactness, contiguity, communities of interest, political fairness),
and the RESULT is a Democratic Plan that creates opportunities for minority
groups statewide to have an impact on the political process" (Senator
Yvonne Miller, April 12, 2001).
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