The Florida Redistricting Process Must Live Up to the Promise of the Fair Districts Amendments

By Katie Vicsik, Florida State Director

In 2012, the Florida redistricting process was anything but transparent. Politicians in Tallahassee collaborated with partisan political operatives to introduce district maps that overtly favored Republicans while publicly claiming they were including input from Floridians. Years later, those unconstitutional maps were overturned in court, but not before damaging our political system and the reputation of the elected officials that held a sham public process.

Florida now has benchmark congressional and State Senate maps, recently drawn and approved by the Florida Supreme Court that voters know are fair. Rather than starting these maps from scratch, the Legislature should use these fair maps to guide its drawing process.

We also need to make sure the redistricting process and resulting congressional, State Senate, and State House maps live up to the promise of the Fair Districts Amendments that were overwhelmingly passed by 63 percent of voters.

With the announcement that Florida is gaining one congressional seat, along with the incoming census data in the fall, now is the time to begin a transparent map-drawing process. Map drawing must be open and accessible to the public and provide citizens ample time to provide input. If the Florida Legislature can commit to this, Floridians will be able to have their trust restored in the process again.

If you want to get involved in the fight for fair maps in Florida, take action today by using our letter-to-the-editor tool to write a letter to your local newspaper. Together, we can make the difference in the fight for fair maps for all Floridians!

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