The Texas House is considering a proposal to count prison inmates as residents of their previous hometowns for purposes of redistricting.
The House Redistricting Committee had a hearing about the bill on Thursday.
The Census counts prisoners and mental patients as residents of the districts where their institutions are located.
They can't vote, but their presence boosts the electoral clout of the districts where they're counted.
Advocates for the new bill claim lawmakers deliberately use prisons to pad the populations of favored districts.