White GOPer: Beat black Democratic congresswoman by packing her district with prisoners

Under the Voting Rights Act, states are obligated to draw districts such that a certain number of them are majority-minority in order to ensure that minority groups have representation in Congress — a fact that was later derided in the meeting as “a monster in our political correctness.” By drawing large numbers of non-white prisoners, who can’t vote, into Brown’s district, it could maintain its majority-minority population with minority-minority eligible voters.

Brown’s district is already one of the most heavily-gerrymandered in the country, running north-south from Jacksonville to Orlando:



However, Florida’s congressional map was recently ruled unconstitutional, forcing the legislature to redraw them. In special redistricting session last month, both houses of Florida’s legislature approved maps that changed the configuration of Brown’s district, making it run east-west — from Jacksonville to Tallahassee — and dropping the district’s black population from 50 percent to 45 percent. The district includes no less than eighteen prisons. While this wasn’t discussed during the legislative session, it was apparently nonetheless intentional.

http://americablog.com/2015/09/white-goper-beat-black-democratic-congresswoman-by-packing-her-district-with-prisoners.html