Just a a few minutes ago, the Florida Supreme Court announced knocked off the November ballot an initiatve - signed by nearly 1 million Floridians - that would have given voters the opportunity to take redistricting away from incumbent officeholders and given that authority to an independent comission.The Florida Redistricting Ballot Initiative, Amendment 5, would have created a 15-member redistricting commission to draw congressional and legislative districts. Despite the great efforts of the
Committee for Fair Elections, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in against the Redistricting Amendment. The Justices did not approve the proposal to give voters an opportunity to create a nonpartisan commission, effective after the 2010 United States Census recording. The proposed commission would have established a redistricting process to make politicians more accountable, end the practice of politicians choosing their voters and stop the unfair splitting of communities for partisan political advantage.
It is important to note that the Justices did not judge the merit of the proposed amendment, but whether it met legal requirements to address a "single subject" and be fairly summarized for voters.Currently, Florida's Constitution gives the Florida Legislature the authority to draw state legislative and congressional boundaries. This system permits Florida's elected officials to choose their voters, instead of the voters choosing their officials. The result is bizarrely shaped, uncompetitive districts that senselessly separate Florida's cities, counties and neighborhoods. In the 2004 election, as a result of the last redistricting, only one congressional race out of 25 was decided by a margin of less than 10%. And not one incumbent legislator or member of Congress was defeated in 2004. These amendments will make political races more competitive.Without the reforms in these amendments, politicians will continue drawing their own districts in ways that ensure that they cannot be defeated.
"Read more" for our press release:
Florida Supreme Court disappoints in refusing to
allow Floridians to consider
redistricting in November
The League of Women
Voters and Common Cause are deeply disappointed by the decision of the Florida
Supreme Court to prohibit voters from considering an initiative on November’s
ballot that would have reformed the redistricting process to make politicians
more accountable, ended the practice of politicians choosing their voters and
stopped the unfair splitting of communities for partisan political advantage.
“More than 930,000 Floridians have already expressed support for redistricting
reform by signing petitions to get this proposal on the ballot. It is
tremendously disappointing that so many citizens care so deeply about creating
a fair system and that the measure won’t be on the ballot,” said Dianne Wheatley-Giliotti of the League of Women
Voters of Florida.
Committee for Fair Elections Chairman and Common Cause Florida Executive
Director Ben Wilcox said, “We believe that this calls into question the basic
fairness of the initiative process in Florida. This decision undermines not only the will of the nearly
1,000,000 voters that signed the petitions, but also the ability of the people
of Florida to make decisions to hold their government accountable.
Self-interested incumbents have used taxpayer dollars to fight this effort
every step of the way. The special
interests clearly have money and they are powerful - they will do anything to
protect their control of the state - but eventually the people will
prevail - we're just going to have to go at them again.”
Passage of Amendment 5 would have ensured that Florida would have compact
districts that represent existing communities and it would have removed
politicians from the process of drawing their own districts. Currently,
Florida's Constitution gives the Florida Legislature the authority to draw
state legislative and congressional boundaries. This system permits Florida's
elected officials to choose their voters, instead of the voters choosing their
officials. The result is bizarrely shaped, uncompetitive districts that
senselessly separate Florida's cities, counties and neighborhoods. In the 2004
election, as a result of the last redistricting, only one congressional race
out of 25 was decided by a margin of less than 10 percent. And not one
incumbent legislator or member of Congress was defeated in 2004. This
amendment would have made political races more competitive.
Without the reforms in these amendments, politicians will be allowed to
continue drawing their own districts in ways that ensure that they cannot be
defeated.
For more information, see the Committee for Fair Elections’ home page at http://www.committeeforfairelections.com/ You are not logged in.
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