How 1 Person Equals 1.31 Constituents

By Katherine Homan, President and Suzanne Wills, Board member

League of Women Voters of Dallas

Equal representation in Congress and the Legislature is fundamental to democracy. Yet a little known quirk in the census rules is being allowed to undermine that doctrine.

Like most states, Texas, relies on Census Bureau data to draw its legislative boundaries so that each will contain the same number of people. Equally sized districts ensure that each resident has an equal access to a representative to advocate for his or her needs. The Census counts everyone including people who can't vote such as prisoners and children.

Since children have a stake in their communities, no distortion of representation arises from counting them. The same, however, cannot be said for prisoners.

The Texas Election Code recognizes that prisoners are residents of the communities where their homes and families are, not where they are incarcerated. Section 1.015 defines residence as “One's home...to which one intends to return after any temporary absence.” It specifically states that, “A person who is an inmate in a penal institution...does not…acquire residence at the place where the institution is located.” Nevertheless, the Census Bureau counts prisoners as residents of the community where they are incarcerated.

In 1970, when Texas imprisoned only 14,293 people (128 per 100,000 population), ignoring the residence of inmates had little consequence. In the last 40 years, since the drug war began, Texas has imprisoned its citizens at a rate unprecedented in human history. On August 31, 2005 there were 152,213 people in Texas prisons and state jails. Per 100,000 population there were 2,300 blacks, 600 Hispanics, 400 whites and 100 of other ethnicities. The Legislative Budget Board estimates that Texas will have 11,200 more prisoners by 2011.

Where this many people are counted as residents has a significant effect on representation.

Voters in the largely rural communities where prisons are located have increased legislative power. In 2005 inmates made up more than 20% of the populations of six Texas counties-Anderson, Bee, Hartley, Jones, Mitchell and Walker. Counted but disenfranchised inmates give each legitimate resident of Anderson County the voting strength of 1.31 constituents.

Conversely this voting strength is lost to the inmates’ home communities. 45% of Texas inmates came from six other Texas counties-Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis and El Paso. After adjusting for the inmates held in Harris and Dallas Counties, more than 28,000 constituents of Harris County and 16,000 constituents of Dallas County are counted as residents in other counties.

Texas cannot change the Census Bureau’s methodology to count the incarcerated at their homes. The state is highly unlikely to give inmates the right to vote as do Vermont, Maine, eighteen European states and Iraq. However, Texas could and should remedy the distortion between urban and rural counties by adjusting the Census Bureau data to meet the Texas Election Code.

The League of Women Voters of Texas strongly supports the right of each citizen to equal access to Congressional or Legislative representatives. For many years it advocated for passage of the Texas Election Code. It became law in 1986, recognizing prisoners as residents of the communities where their homes and families are. This principal should not be undermined for bureaucratic convenience, blurring and distorting representation ratios so that one person equals 1.31 constituents and another person loses access to her representative. Check Mail Compose