Today’s entry: Hearing your discussion on drawing up districts and Fla is one of the fairest, the guest provided a lot of details. Do voter roles and their accuracy play a part in creating the maps this one looks (I don't want to say Gerrymandered, but) ...
Bottom Line: Tis’ that time of the decade where redistricting is in full swing. As we enter the second week of the state session, it remains the only must-do by the legislature this side of passing a budget. Today’s note follows my conversation from Friday with state Senator Manny Diaz Jr. who is heavily involved with the process. So, here’s the thing about redistricting maps. They’re complicated and whether they’re our current maps or any of the ones proposed, there’s a really good chance you’ve looked at them and thought ...what the...? But here’s the thing. Just because they often look like they don’t make sense, it doesn’t mean they don’t and must be gerrymandered. That’s because of what the law calls for.
While I think most Floridians would think geography would be the top consideration, independent of other factors, it’s not. And legally it can’t be. Under the Voting Rights Act, priority is given to the protection of racial minorities first, and geography second. What complicates it still further is another mandate which comes into play. The concepts of cracking and stacking.
As part of the Tier 1 considerations under the Voting Rights Act, legislators can’t “crack” racial minorities by diluting their representation across multiple districts which might potentially mitigate their influence. At the same time, they can’t “stack” them, or over-populate districts with racial minorities in what could be an effort to lump racial minorities unduly into districts with one another in an effort to mitigate their influence more broadly. If it sounds complicated, it is. That’s because each district must have approximately the same number of people, representing racial balance and then attempting to make geographical sense. Independent of actual gerrymandering efforts, the reason why maps/districts, will often include long slivers of people extending alongside other districts is a result of these factors.
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