Black Louisianans represent 31.2% of all registered votersSOS 5/1/2026 — 925,657 people. Under SB 121, 731,722 of those voters are distributed across 5 Republican-controlled districts where they cannot elect candidates of their choice. Only 193,935 are in District 2 — the single Democratic seat. This is pack-and-crack by design, not partisan coincidence.
SB 121 HCA-5662 McMakin Amendment Shapefile · Louisiana SOS Active Voter File · 5/1/2026 · District aggregates from parish assignments per McMakin Amendment text.
REI = District Black % minus statewide Black % (31.2%). Positive = packed — Black voters over-concentrated, votes above the majority threshold are structurally wasted. Negative = cracked — Black voters dispersed, cannot reach decisive electoral share. Zero would be proportional. Under SB 121, District 2 is the only district with meaningful Black electoral influence.
Black voters are 64.1% of the Democratic party baseSOS 5/1/2026 in Louisiana. SB 121 places 79% of all Black registered voters in districts where the Republican candidate wins. In Louisiana's hyper-polarized electorate — where Black voters vote Democratic at 90%+ — maximizing Republican advantage is mathematically indistinguishable from targeting Black voters. This is the crux of the post-Callais litigation path.
Black Voter Registration by District
Black % vs. 31.2% State Baseline
Party Registration — All 6 Districts
Total Registered Voters by District
Racial Composition of Each District — Stacked
Sort by Black % to identify parishes where cracking most acutely disperses Black voting blocs. Sort by District to see which communities of interest were fragmented. Cross-reference with the Data Integrity tab for parishes where the bill's stated VAP cannot be reconciled with active voter registration — these are your 14th Amendment exhibits. Each data point sourced directly from Louisiana SOS active voter file, 5/1/2026.
| Parish ↕ | District ↕ | Total Reg. ↕ | Black Reg. ↕ | Black % ↕ | Dem % ↕ | Rep % ↕ | REI Effect ↕ |
|---|
Plaintiffs do not need a VRA claim to challenge SB 121. The Equal Protection Clause requires absolute mathematical population equality among congressional districts. These anomalies — drawn from the legislature's own official tables — demonstrate the districts are malapportioned on their face. No expert witnesses required. The bill refutes itself.
VAP (all residents 18+) is the absolute ceiling for voter registration. Rates above 100% are physically impossible — they indicate systemic database column misalignment during map generation from the "2026 Precinct Shapefiles (1-27-2026)." SB 121 Reengrossed · Page 12
| Parish Subdivision | Stated Total Pop | Registered Voters | Stated VAP | Implied Reg. Rate | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson Parish (Part) | 245,682 | 196,528 | 133,984 | 146.68% | IMPOSSIBLE |
| Lafourche Parish (Part) | 44,458 | 33,799 | 22,315 | 151.46% | IMPOSSIBLE |
| Orleans Parish (Part) | 50,038 | 41,407 | 29,329 | 141.18% | IMPOSSIBLE |
| St. Bernard Parish | 43,764 | 31,775 | 22,206 | 143.09% | IMPOSSIBLE |
| Tangipahoa Parish (Part) | 39,081 | 29,691 | 21,750 | 136.51% | IMPOSSIBLE |
| Terrebonne Parish (Part) | 65,144 | 49,085 | 28,421 | 172.70% | IMPOSSIBLE |
| St. Tammany Parish | 264,570 | 168,850 | 202,228 | 83.49% | NORMAL |
| Plaquemines Parish | 23,515 | 12,130 | 17,334 | 69.98% | NORMAL |
Per SB 121 Reengrossed · Page 11: Sum of individual parish VAP figures for District 1 = 477,567. The bill's district-level summary declares D1 VAP = 601,847. The gap — 124,280 people — does not exist in any Louisiana database. This is not rounding error. It is systemic database column misalignment confirmed by the impossible registration rates above.
The McMakin amendments transferred precincts across 8 parishes (Morehouse, Lincoln, Jackson, Grant, Calcasieu, St. Landry, Tangipahoa, Pointe Coupee) in a closed-door session with no demographic review. Each transfer introduced new split-line mismatches between the static "2026 Precinct Shapefiles" and the live SOS voter registry. Per Rep. Rodney Lyons (D-Marrero): the committee was "performing surgery on maps with no input."
Assumption Parish segment: 127.9% of VAP. Iberville Parish segment: 143.2% of VAP. The data corruption is not district-specific — it is a systemic flaw across the entire cartographic dataset, confirming technical failure in the legislative mapping infrastructure, not isolated clerical error.
This is an open-source interactive spatial analysis tool tracking regional demographic shifts and representational equity following Louisiana v. Callais (Apr. 29, 2026) and the 2026 Regular Session amendments to SB 121. Built for Democratic Caucus members, NAACP, LDF, Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, and legal teams challenging SB 121. Every data point is sourced from official public records and is fully reproducible via the Python pipeline included in this repository.
Data Sources
- Louisiana SOS — Statewide Report of Registered Voters by Party and Race, 5/1/2026 (Active voters only)
- HCA SB121-5662 — McMakin Amendment district boundary shapefile, 2026 Regular Session
- SB 121 Reengrossed (Morris) — Parish summary tables, VAP anomalies (Page 12)
- U.S. Census 2020 P.L. 94-171 — Block-level population (BVAP integration pending)
- House Committee Testimony — May 21, 2026 hearing record
Legal Framework
- Louisiana v. Callais, 608 U.S. ___ (Apr. 29, 2026) — Section 2 VRA gutted
- Rucho v. Common Cause, 588 U.S. 684 (2019) — Partisan gerrymandering nonjusticiable
- Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30 (1986) — Narrowed by Callais
- Alexander v. SC NAACP, 602 U.S. 1 (2024) — Disentanglement standard
- 14th Amendment — One-person, one-vote (primary remaining federal challenge)
- Louisiana Constitution — Community-of-interest and parish integrity provisions
REI Methodology
The Representational Equity Index measures deviation from proportional Black representation:
Analyst
Open source. Data from Louisiana SOS and Louisiana Legislature (public record). Analysis and visualization by Tia Fields. Attribution required for redistribution.