Florida elections supervisors are warning that the timeline to conduct the state’s primary election in August will be tight once the Legislature and governor agree on a new redistricting congressional map and court challenges are resolved.
Mark Earley, the elections supervisor for Leon County and the president-elect of the Florida Supervisors of Elections, has said his staff would need to have the congressional map in hand by May 27 in order to complete all the tasks necessary to get ballots to the printer. Other elections supervisors might require the map even earlier – by early May – to ensure the primary vote will proceed according to plan, Earley said.
A special section of the state Legislature is set to unfold on April 19 in the wake of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ veto of a previously passed congressional map. State lawmakers have clearly placed the issue in the governor’s court.
“At this time, Legislative reapportionment staff is not drafting or producing a map for introduction during the special session,” Senate President Wilton Simpson and House Speaker Chris Sprowls said in a joint statement this week. “We are awaiting a communication from the Governor’s Office with a map that he will support. Our intention is to provide the Governor’s Office opportunities to present that information before House and Senate redistricting committees.”
A key stumbling block in the dispute was DeSantis’ opposition to a Black-majority congressional district in the northern part of the state. Minority voting rights is a key argument in legal challenges to the maps proposed during the redistricting process.
The local election supervisors’ timeline is not in sync with a longer timeline advocated by the secretary of state, Laurel Lee.
“I understand that the Florida secretary of state has stated in court filings … that the deadline for the state to have a new congressional map is June 13, 2022,” Earley said in comments emailed to the Florida Record. “I do not believe it will be possible for any supervisor of elections in Florida … to meet the necessary deadlines for realigning the voter registration street indices … if a new map is not finalized until June 13.”
Groups such as Common Cause Florida and Fair Districts Now have challenged the direction of the redistricting process in Florida, as well as the governor’s position that redistricting amendments in the state constitution may be at odds with the federal constitution.