2012 Redistricting:
Why Your Involvement is Crucial to Florida's Future
Do you care about the future of Florida's schools? Or maybe preserving the environment is your biggest concern. Maybe reducing taxes or creating jobs? Promoting alternative energy? No matter what you think are the most important issues, if you care about building a better future for Florida then your biggest concern now should be ensuring the 2012 redistricting process is fair, open, and adheres to the new standards passed by voters in 2010.
Until citizens can hold their elected leaders accountable in fair elections, lobbyists and special interests will always have more influence in Tallahassee than citizens do. That's why redistricting reform is so important.
Every ten years, after the national census, every state is required to redraw their Congressional and state legislative districts. "Gerrymandering" is when the political party in power draws those boundaries to its own advantage in elections.
If you take a close look at this map of Florida's Congressional districts or this map of Florida's state house districts, you can see that many of the districts wind around each other, splitting cities and counties, even crossing from one coast to the other, with no logical geographical divisions. Those funny-shaped districts were carefully drawn to maximize the electoral chances of one political party over the other.
The party in power at the time of redistricting used sophisticated computer software to draw districts that have so many voters of their own party that it's almost impossible for them to lose an election. These are called "safe seats." Remember those funny-shaped districts you just looked at? Those were drawn to pull most of the other party's voters out of all the surrounding seats to create as many safe seats as possible.
And what effect does this have on how our elected leaders govern? It has created smug arrogance in Tallahassee. You see, most members of Florida's legislature know that when they face reelection the deck is so stacked in their favor it's almost impossible for them to lose. That's why they can do whatever they want up there without worrying about what voters think or what's really best for Florida.
Over the last decade, there have been several efforts to enact standards and guidelines for redistricting to ensure that districts are drawn fairly, requiring districts that are compact, with lines that follow existing city and county borders and geographic boundaries like large bodies of water. Districts could not be drawn to favor or disfavor any incumbent or political party.
In 2010, a bipartisan organization called Fair Districts Florida successfully led a citizens' initiative to place two amendments on the ballot to create Constitutional redistricting standards that will prevent gerrymandering and ensure fair elections. Amendments 5 and 6 passed easily, with more than 62% of voters in support.
Despite voters' overwhelming support for the amendments, the politicians in power who benefit from the old system aren't going to let it go without a fight. Before the redistricting process could even begin, they were trying to undermine the new standards.
One of Governor Scott's first acts when he took office in January was to withdraw the amendments from the federal pre-clearance process, a necessary step in implementing them. And State Rep. Dean Cannon, speaker of the Florida House, filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging them. In fact, the Florida House has already spent nearly a million dollars of taxpayer money this year in its court battle to undermine the will of the voters and avoid applying fair standards. (Check out this page at Transparency Florida for detailed figures.)
The only way to ensure that legislative leaders honor the will of the voters is for Floridians to be informed, active and engaged in the redistricting process.
Here are some ways you can get involved:
Take Action
- Attend a public hearing in your area to tell legislators how you believe the districts should be drawn. The legislature is holding 26 meetings across the state -- you can attend in person, send comments via email or a social network, or watch the hearing on your computer.
- Email your legislators using our easy tool. Let them know that you are monitoring the redistricting the process and expect them to fully implement the new standards as voters intended, drawing fair districts across the state. You can also tell your state representative that you want them to drop their federal lawsuit and stop wasting taxpayer dollars on undermining the will of the voters.
- Post a link to this article on your Facebook page. (While you're at it, be sure to become a friend of CIVIC on Facebook, and urge others to join you!)
- Sign up for email updates from CIVIC so we can keep you informed as the process moves forward.