To fulfill the perceived requirements of the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act, some states drew "bizarre" majority-minority districts in the 1990s. Seemingly at odds with the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court reacted in a series of rulings to effectively ban the affirmative use of race as a predominant factor in drawing districts. Looking ahead to redistricting in 2001, Texas and many other states with significant minority populations will have the unenviable task of appeasing these conflicting constraints. What chilling effect the Supreme Court will have on creating majority-minority districts remains to be seen. For their part, minority groups in Texas should not sit idly by. This report explains one element of a successful minority group strategy for redistricting in 2001 -- a verifiable scientific method to more accurately determine vote dilution and the proper level of minority voting age population required in majority-minority districts.
-- Author's foreword.
