Fair Districts: Will the GOP Abide by Voters' Will?

Fair districts: Will the GOP abide by voters' will?


By Curt Levine

Sun-Sentinel, July 17, 2011


Republicans bitterly opposed the Fair Districts Amendments passed by Florida's voters last November. Florida's Republican Party poured $2.6 million into its fight against Amendments 5 and 6 and is still supporting the Republican-led Legislature's court challenges, using public funds, against the amendments' implementation. Will the GOP leadership now abide by the voters' will and draw legislative districts that comply with the Fair Districts guidelines?

Apparently not, based upon an analysis of the My District Builder software used by the Republican legislative staff assisting to draw Florida's proposed districts. A technical audit performed by the Palm Beach County Democratic Executive Committee found the My District Builder software mysteriously deleted an entire section on compactness and geospatial analysis. The missing section was designed to calculate ratios of compactness and make an overall scoring of compliance with the redistricting requirements under Amendment 5. The missing geospatial analysis would give a mathematical rating in determining whether the new districts were drawn not to favor or disfavor incumbents or a political party and be compact, as equal in population as feasible, making use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries.

Palm Beach County DEC Chair Mark Alan Siegel has raised legitimate questions regarding why the speaker's office had ordered the removal of the compactness analysis. Those questions have not been answered. Although contained in the Legislature's initial release of the My District Builder software, the compactness and geospatial analysis components were deleted by House Redistricting Committee staff soon after they appeared.

When this writer asked why the geospatial analysis section was deleted, a spokesman for House Speaker Dean Cannon's office replied compactness was only one factor in redrawing district lines, and other factors had to be considered, such as splitting city and county lines, and the effects on minority communities. This response is illogical; compactness was not only a desired component of the amendments, but it also offered a numeric measure as to the fairness issues. Splitting city and county lines, and grouping minorities into minority districts causing the bleaching of adjacent districts, unlike compactness, were characteristics to be avoided under the Fair Districts amendments.

By removing the compactness and geospatial analysis from the software, new district lines drawn on party or incumbent lines are not as detectible without the geospatial analysis numerical rating.

When the joint legislative redistricting public hearings come to your neighborhood this summer, it would be informative to get an answer as to why the geospatial analysis section was removed by the legislative leadership. Unfortunately, the committee members have already been instructed not to comment on any aspect of the process. To the detriment of the public, the Redistricting Committee members will not bring with them any proposed plans for public comment.

The Legislature's current redistricting software, without the compactness statistical component, flaws the process and stacks the deck in favor of the incumbent Republican leadership. Florida voters will ultimately have to rely upon the state Supreme Court to generate a fair redistricting plan in order to get a fair deal.

Curt Levine is an Orlando attorney and a former Florida state representative.