Garcia said during the hearing

Texas told a U.S. court it failed to reach an agreement with minorities on state electoral maps, possibly signaling further delay of the state’s Burberry ties primary elections scheduled for April 3. The state and the minority groups fighting over the lines drawn by the Republican-controlled Legislature for the 2012 elections told a panel of judges today in San Antonio they were still far from a consensus and had “insurmountable” issues on at least one proposed congressional district. “With the larger groups of the plaintiffs, we won’t be able to come up with a solution,” David Mattax, a Texas deputy attorney general, said during an all-day hearing. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia and two other federal judge, who pushed for a resolution that would make primaries possible in April, are creating temporary voter districts that can be used in the state’s 2012 elections while legal challenges continue. “If we delay and don’t have an April primary, that delays the political process and the ability of the parties to have their conventions,” Garcia said during the hearing. The six-month redistricting fight has already created delays that knocked Texas out of the influential March 6 Super Tuesday presidential primaries. More Americans vote in primaries or caucuses on that date than on any other. April Primary Timothy Mellett, a Justice Department lawyer, told the judges that the government objects to an April primary, arguing that federal law requires states to provide military and overseas voters at least 45 days to return their ballots. Jacqueline Callahan, elections administrator for Bexar County, answered questions from the judges on the implications of various primary dates. She said if county elections officials had the interim maps by March 3, the primaries could reasonably be held May 29. Any earlier would cause counties to be in violation of federal laws or state laws, she said. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January that interim voter maps the San Antonio judges created last year weren’t deferential enough to maps drawn by the Texas Legislature. The high court told the panel to try again, using the lawmakers’ boundaries as the starting point. Compromise Districts Last week, the San Antonio judges ordered the Burberry belts litigants to work through the weekend on compromise districts so the judges can quickly create new maps. The parties were also ordered to keep negotiating at the federal courthouse in San Antonio and representatives from the various parties and both houses of the Texas Legislature told the panel they would have representatives with settlement authority in attendance. Texas advised the San Antonio judges on Feb. 13 that the sides were getting closer to agreement on many boundaries, particularly in state legislative districts. Significant sticking points remained that “may prevent a global compromise on the Congressional map,” according to the state’s filing. The Legislature carved out four new U.S. congressional districts to accommodate the 4.3 million residents the 2010 U.S. Census found the state added since 2000. Hispanics, who more often vote for Democrats than Republicans, accounted for about 65 percent of the growth. Republican Governor Rick Perry approved the maps. Threatened Lawmakers Latinos and lawmakers whose jobs were threatened by the Legislature’s new maps sued over claims Republicans distorted districts to prevent the election of minorities, in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Republicans claimed they didn’t discriminate and are legally permitted to draw lines that favor the elected political majority. The San Antonio judges last month urged a different federal three-judge panel in Washington to rule quickly on a lawsuit Texas brought in July seeking so-called pre-clearance for its new maps under the voting act. Approval of such changes, required for states with a history of voting-rights violations, can be obtained directly from the Justice Department or through litigation. The U.S. objects to two proposed congressional districts and five state assembly districts. After the Washington panel said it doesn’t anticipate a decision on pre-clearance until next month, Garcia said in a Feb. 2 order that his court won’t wait for that ruling and will announce interim maps first. Key Considerations Garcia said at a hearing last month that the San Antonio panel must balance two key considerations in addition to creating voter boundaries that don’t discriminate. The first is holding primaries early enough so that Texans’ votes count in the presidential selection process and so political parties can select delegates for their state conventions based on those primary results. Both Republicans and Democrats are set to hold their Texas political conventions in early June, on dates and in locations committed to years ago. Texas Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri told the court last month the state political parties may go bankrupt if they’re Burberry scarves forced to reschedule thousands of hotel rooms and meeting places. The second consideration is whether to split Texas’s primaries so that the presidential primary is held in April and primaries for all other offices are held later, after new congressional and state legislative district boundaries have been made final, Garcia said.