Texas Supreme Court blocks Galveston County's new redistricting maps for November election

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Galveston County cannot use its newly redrawn precinct maps for the November election, siding against commissioners who approved the changes back in June.

In its opinion, the court said the county had no legal basis for altering precinct lines in the middle of an election cycle. "The County has failed to identify valid legal authority for implementing this extraordinary mid-election change in its precinct lines," the justices wrote. "We conclude that a commissioners court's general power to redraw precinct lines 'from time to time' does not include the power to change the lines applicable to an election after the election has begun."

Galveston County commissioners voted unanimously in June to adopt the new maps, a move that drew immediate pushback from voters who argued the boundaries would dilute minority representation and split up existing communities. That approval prompted an emergency petition asking the state's highest court to step in before ballots went out for the fall election.

University of Houston political science lecturer Nancy Sims said the court's decision turns on timing, not on the substance of the maps themselves. "They had just voted these maps in June, and people weren't aware of them," Sims said. "They were planning to use them for this election cycle. And people were very confused over who would represent them, what, who were the candidates in their neighborhood."

Galveston County's general counsel pushed back hard against the ruling in a statement sent Friday. The office said the same candidates are running unopposed in the county's commissioner, constable, and justice of the peace races this year, regardless of which map is used, meaning the outcome of those elections will not change. "Just to be clear, it is a 100% certainty that today's opinion will not change who is a commissioner, justice of the peace, or constable in Galveston County on Jan. 1, 2027," the statement read.

The county's counsel described the legal fight as "a purely litigation-driven farce," pointing to five years of complaints from groups that argue the county's 2021 precinct maps are discriminatory. The statement said those same groups now want the county to reinstate the maps they have spent years challenging so the litigation can continue.

The county also raised a logistical concern tied to military voters. Mail-in ballots are due to go out to service members stationed overseas within about a week, the county said, and reworking those ballots to reflect map changes for uncontested local races would likely take more than a month. "We sincerely hope that no man or woman in uniform will have their right to vote for their congressman, governor, senator, or Texas Supreme Court Justice compromised while we attempt to modify uncontested local races," the statement said, adding that the county plans to ask the Texas Supreme Court to weigh the practical fallout of its own ruling.

Sims said the timing of the decision creates real problems for election administrators. "Printing the ballots, we are past the deadline for the ballots to be printed," she said. "So it's creating a lot of havoc for the people who administer the elections and for the voters."

According to Sims, the maps commissioners approved in June are not necessarily dead for good. She said they could still be used in a future election cycle, but only after going through the county's approval process again from scratch.

The redistricting fight is not fully resolved with Friday's ruling. A federal judge still has to decide separate claims that Galveston County intentionally discriminated against minority voters when it drew its current precinct lines, a case that predates this year's mid-cycle map change and will continue independent of the state court's decision.

For now, the county is sorting out which map applies to a ballot that, by its own account, decides races where the winners are already known. County officials said they intend to press the state's highest court for guidance on how to handle the ballots before they go out to overseas service members in the coming days.