FAIR DISTRICTS IN FLORIDA

A Recent History of Redistricting in Florida

You can read more about Florida’s history of redistricting here, from the rampant gerrymandering throughout our history to the FairDistricts Amendments we passed in 2010 (you can also read more about the amendments below).

The Fair Districts Amendments

The Fair Districts amendments were intended to prevent legislators from drawing lines favoring political parties or incumbents. (One amendment covered elections of the U.S. House of Representatives; the other governed districts for Florida’s Senate and House of Representatives.) The amendments were supposed to end the longstanding practice by ruling parties in the Legislature —Democrats, then Republicans — of creating as many voter-friendly districts for their candidates as possible. It’s called gerrymandering.

STANDARDS FOR LEGISLATURE TO FOLLOW IN LEGISLATIVE REDISTRICTING
STANDARDS FOR LEGISLATURE TO FOLLOW IN CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING

On November 2, 2010, Floridians overwhelmingly spoke out by passing Amendments 5 and 6 –with 63% of the vote.

The amendments were in effect for the creation of districts used in the 2012 elections, however, the Florida Legislature did not follow the rules. We challenged the congressional and State Senate maps along with the League of Women Voters.

When the state Supreme Court told them to fix their redistricting map, they gerrymandered again and they were told to fix it again. They spent over $8 million dollars trying to prove they had not.

On top of our December 2015 victory where the Florida Supreme Court approved Congressional Maps submitted by Common Cause Florida and the League of Women Voters Florida, the Second Circuit Court in Leon County adopted our plan for State Senate districts in January 2016. The Legislature decided not to appeal Judge Reynolds decision, which means another major victory of the People of Florida.