As Florida lawmakers open discussions on redrawing political districts in the state, advocacy groups are expressing hopes of avoiding the protracted litigation and secrecy that occurred during the 2010 redistricting process.
The once-every-decade exercise of drawing up political boundaries based on new census data kicked off this week with introductory hearings in the state legislature. Groups that are monitoring the process say they will work to seek more transparency and public input.
But they don’t want a replay of the last go-round, when the GOP-dominated legislature’s maps were invalidated by the courts due to their failure to follow the Fair Districts Amendments, which were approved handily by Florida voters in 2010.
During the current redistricting process, Florida lawmakers will need to increase the number of the state’s congressional districts from 26 to 27 due to population growth of nearly 3 million over the past decade.
Cecile Scoon, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said she was hopeful that problems of the past could be avoided. She attended a recent state Senate hearing on how the process may proceed in the coming months.
“They publicly acknowledged the bad history and publicly acknowledged they didn’t want to repeat it,” Scoon told the Florida Record. “I think that was refreshing. I would say at this point it was a good start."
The league is urging lawmakers to abide by the Fair District Amendments and ensure that the new districts have equally divided populations, don’t favor a single political party, give racial minorities fair representation and are compact.
“Whenever there’s a history of intentional wrongdoing, the parties involved have memories and there are concerns, certainly,” Scoon said. “… We have been speaking to legislators, writing to them and asking them to commit to the concept of fair districts.”
The organization would also be interested in studying the possibility of appointing a bipartisan commission to carry out the redrawing of political boundaries in the future in order to avoid politicizing the process, Scoon said.