The Legislature could consider a constitutional amendment to change the timeline for redistricting votes in an effort to address a barrage of criticism lawmakers have heard as they have traveled across Florida, Senate Reapportionment Chairman Don Gaetz said Tuesday.
The idea floated by Gaetz, R-Niceville, marked the second time in as many days that the lawmakers spearheading the once-a-decade redistricting process appeared to try to mollify increasingly vocal critics of the current process.
Voter-rights groups and citizens who have showed up for the public hearings that began in Tallahassee in June have roundly criticized the process for taking too long and for putting the public hearings ahead of the maps being drawn.
Gaetz and House Redistricting Chairman Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said after a Monday meeting in Tampa that they would consider hosting videoconferences at different locations around the state to allow virtual public hearings on the maps before lawmakers vote on the final plans.
Gaetz went farther on Tuesday.
“Maybe we need to move redistricting votes to an odd-numbered year so that the Legislature and the public and the courts and the federal Justice Department all have more time,” Gaetz told reporters after the Largo meeting, where he announced he was considering sponsoring an amendment.
An amendment like the one Gaetz outlined would not affect the current round of redistricting. But it could ensure future redistricting efforts don’t run into the same resistance that this round of map-drawing has encountered. Supervisors of elections have joined groups that supported the Fair Districts anti-gerrymandering amendments in arguing that a delayed finish to redistricting could make it nearly impossible for incumbents to be effectively challenged and could cause mass confusion at the polls.
The Florida Constitution currently requires the Legislature to vote on the maps in the even-numbered year following the release of U.S. Census numbers. Lawmakers moved up the start of the session to January to try to give enough time for lawmakers to pass a map that must then be reviewed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Department of Justice under the Voting Rights Act, because of a history of racial or language discrimination, in parts of Florida, before it can take effect.
Critics have worried that if lawmakers wait until near the March end of the legislative session, the new lines could go into effect just days before the end of candidate qualifying and complicate efforts to mail absentee or overseas ballots for party primaries.
Those critics have frequently showed up to hammer lawmakers for not adopting a timeline recommended by the League of Women Voters and other groups, who have suggested redistricting committees tee up plans for a vote during the first week of session.
“We get sidetracked into discussions about what the constitution ought to include, or what it does include, and maybe the best thing to do is consider an amendment to the constitution,” Gaetz said.
Weatherford said Gaetz’s announcement at the Largo hearing was the first he had heard of the idea. He said the amendment was “an intriguing idea” that might help drive home lawmakers’ argument in the current round of redistricting that they have little control over the schedule.
“It’s certainly worth looking at and debating, because clearly people are having a hard time understanding,” Weatherford said.
Deirdre Macnab, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, reacted cautiously to Gaetz’s proposal. She said the league would have to hear more about the idea before taking a stance on it.
“This is a conversation that probably would better be had after the Legislature has completed its constitutional duty, following the law and the will of the voters,” Macnab said.
At Tuesday’s meeting in Largo, several residents of the southern end of Pinellas County’s peninsula also chafed at being included in the 11th Congressional District, a Tampa-dominated seat that is connected only by bodies of water in several places. It was drawn that way to connect pockets of African-American voters and traditionally Democratic voters in southern Pinellas with Democratic and black voters in Hillsborough County.
“I think Pinellas should be Pinellas,” resident Peter Franco said.
Several Hillsborough County residents at a hearing Monday night defended the district, which also covers part of Manatee County, because it is a minority access district; blacks and Latinos combined make up half the voting-age population in the district.
But Maria Scruggs, who is black, lashed out Tuesday at similar reasoning when one white commenter said downtown St. Petersburg had more in common with other parts of the district across the bay than other parts of Pinellas.
“We do not necessarily have the same interests of African-American communities in Manatee for the sake of our ethnicity,” she said.
By Brandon Larrabee
