In a bid to head off any potential partisan gerrymandering, two state lawmakers have introduced legislation that would broaden Florida’s open-records laws to cover lawmakers’ records and communications relating to redistricting.
The lawmakers, state Sen. Annette Taddeo (D-Miami) and Rep. Joseph Geller (D-Aventura), say the reform contained in Senate Bill 530 and Assembly Bill 6053 will help to ensure that the public can obtain key information on the once-per-decade redrawing of political districts in the state.
Current Florida open-records laws contain an exemption for the disclosure of state lawmakers’ drafts of reapportionment plans or supporting documents and records associated with such plans.
The Florida First Amendment Foundation (FAF) favors the proposed legislation and has supported the repeal of the redistricting exemption for the past three years, according to the foundation’s executive director, Pamela Marsh.
“The process of creating fair districts will only happen when there is more transparency in the work,” Marsh told the Florida Record in an email. “Florida’s legislature has failed in the past to draw fair, representative districts because this exemption has allowed for secrecy and denying access to the true motivations behind redistricting. Shedding light on the process by removing this exemption can only improve the outcome.”
The legislature this year created a web page to provide the public with access about the 2022 redistricting cycle, which includes a map-drawing application and population changes over the past 10 years. Interim legislative committee meetings on redistricting will be held prior to the start of the regular legislative session in January.
A key part of the map drawing will involve congressional districts in the state. Because Florida’s population increased by more than 2.7 million between 2010 and 2020, the state is about to gain an additional congressional seat. Florida will soon be sending 28 representatives to the U.S. House of Representatives, and state house and senate districts will also be redrawn to reflect population changes.
“Redistricting is the public’s business, and the public has a right to know what’s going on,” Geller, the author of AB 6053, said in a prepared statement. “This is really just a part of the transparency we’ve been promised.”