One of Texas’s own Republican state senator, retiring, has said that the Republican party may have violated federal voting law by drawing new boundaries of the state’s senate districts in 2011 ad 2013. This article by Brett Bachman is published by Salon. Here is an excerpt:

A retiring Republican state senator in Texas admitted in a sworn declaration that he believes his party violated federal voting laws when it drew new boundaries for the state’s senate districts in 2011 and 2013 — a stunning admission that was made public this week as part of an ongoing federal challenge to Texas’ redistricting process. 

State Sen. Kel Seliger’s statement specifically mentioned the state’s Senate District 10, which split predominantly Black and Hispanic communities in the Fort Worth area into two other districts that ultimately held majority-white populations, according to the Texas Tribune. Even the minority voters who remained in District 10 were “lumped in” with a number of neighboring counties that happened to be white-majority as well, the outlet reported.

“Having participated in the 2011 and 2013 Senate Select Redistricting Committee proceedings, and having read the prior federal court decision regarding SD10, it was obvious to me that the renewed effort to dismantle SD 10 violated the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution,” Seliger said in the declaration, which he signed in November.

Read the full article here.