{"id":291,"date":"2025-10-15T02:36:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T06:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/fair-districts\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T14:05:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T19:05:30","slug":"fair-districts","status":"publish","type":"work","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/fair-districts\/","title":{"rendered":"Fair Districts"},"template":"","class_list":["post-291","work","type-work","status-publish","hentry","work_type-campaign"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"Fair District standards are designed to stop elected officials from manipulating voting maps to keep themselves and their party in power.","featured_image":6553,"work_type":172,"related_issues":[62,402],"location":12},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":"","name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<h2>We The People should pick our elected officials, not the other way around.<\/h2>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fair maps mean counting everyone equally, playing by the rules, and having a transparent process. Gerrymandering denies voters our right to fair representation and a meaningful choice at the polls - we must end it.<\/span>\r\n<h3><strong>The Fair Districts Amendments<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In November 2010, Floridians overwhelmingly spoke out against gerrymandering by passing the Fair Districts Amendments to the Florida Constitution with 63% of the vote:<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.leg.state.fl.us\/Statutes\/index.cfm?Mode=Constitution&amp;Submenu=3&amp;Tab=statutes#A3S21\">Article III, Section 21<\/a> of the Florida Constitution provides standards for establishing legislative district boundaries for state-level representation in Florida\u2019s Senate and House of Representatives <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.leg.state.fl.us\/Statutes\/index.cfm?Mode=Constitution&amp;Submenu=3&amp;Tab=statutes#A3S20\">Article III, Section 20<\/a> provides standards for establishing congressional district boundaries for Florida\u2019s federal representation in the U.S. House of Representatives\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Fair Districts Amendments were intended to prevent the longstanding practice by ruling parties in the Legislature\u00a0 \u2014 Democrats, then Republicans \u2014 of drawing lines favoring their party.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both amendments require the legislature to comply with the following standards in the redistricting process.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tier 1 Standards:<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Districts shall consist of contiguous territory.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tier 2 Standards, which must be met <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">unless<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> they conflict with federal law or with the Tier 1 standards:<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Districts shall be as nearly equal in population as is practicable.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Districts shall be compact.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Districts shall, where feasible, utilize existing political and geographical boundaries.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h3><strong>The Fight for Fair Districts: 2010s<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it came time to draw new maps in advance of the 2012 elections, the Florida Legislature did not follow the Fair District standards. Floridians saw the consequences of this: Republicans won almost \u2154 of Florida\u2019s congressional seats in 2012, even though only a little over half of Floridians voted for them.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Common Cause and the League of Women Voters challenged the Congressional and State Senate maps in court<\/strong>, and the Florida Supreme Court told the Legislature to fix their maps. Then they gerrymandered again, and they were told to fix it again. <\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, in December 2015, the Florida Supreme Court approved the congressional map submitted by Common Cause Florida and the League of Women Voters Florida. And in January 2016, the Second Circuit Court in Leon County adopted this plan for State Senate districts. This was a major victory for the people of Florida, but the damage was done \u2014 communities across Florida had been deprived of the chance to make their voices heard in the intervening elections.<\/span>\r\n<h3><strong>The Ongoing Fight for Fair Districts: 2020s<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it came time to redraw the maps again in 2022, the Florida Legislature started out following the Fair District standards, but then enacted a map created and pushed through by Governor DeSantis. This map stripped Black voters of fair representation.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/resource\/charge-florida\/\">See how Florida was graded this past redistricting cycle.<\/a><\/strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Federal Lawsuit (Common Cause Florida v. Byrd)<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Common Cause Florida, Fair Districts Now, the NAACP Florida State Conference, and individual voters from across Florida challenged Florida's congressional map in federal court. This federal case argued that the Florida Legislature engaged in intentional racial discrimination in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution in crafting the state\u2019s congressional map. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>Read more about this case <\/em><\/span><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/common-cause-florida-et-al-v-lee\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em>\r\n\r\n<strong>State Lawsuit (Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute v. Byrd)<\/strong>: Equal Ground Education Fund, Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, League of Women Voters of Florida, Florida Rising Together, and 12 individual plaintiffs challenged Florida's congressional map in state court. This state case argued that the map violated the Florida Fair Districts amendment (specifically Article III, Section 20 of the Florida Constitution) because it favored Republicans and diminished the ability of Black voters to elect candidates of their choice. <em>Read more about this case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lwv.org\/legal-center\/black-voters-matter-capacity-building-institute-v-byrd-formerly-black-voters-matter\">here<\/a>.<\/em>\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, despite the federal court clearly recognizing Florida\u2019s history of racial discrimination and the state court acknowledging that the map dismantled a Black opportunity district, the Governor's map was upheld in both cases.\r\n<h3>Opposing Mid-Decade Redistricting<\/h3>\r\nMid-decade redistricting refers to cases where politicians re-draw voting maps in the middle of the decade for political purposes, without a court order to re-draw the map and without waiting for new decennial Census data.\r\n\r\nIn early summer 2025, President Donald Trump began encouraging Republican state leaders to redraw their congressional maps in the middle of the decade in order to benefit Republicans in the 2026 midterm elections. In July 2025, Governor DeSantis started pushing to re-draw Florida\u2019s congressional map: the map that he drew in 2022.\r\n\r\nPartisan gerrymandering may not be illegal on the federal level, and it may not be illegal in many other states, but the Fair Districts Amendments clearly make it illegal in Florida. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/stop-mid-decade-redistricting-in-florida\/\">Click here to read more about our fight against mid-decade redistricting.<\/a>"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_email_signup","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_email_signup":{"":null,"small_title":"Join Us","large_title":"Push For Fair Districts","action_network_embed":"https:\/\/actionnetwork.org\/widgets\/v3\/form\/lando-test","disclaimer":"Sign up to stay up-to-date on the fight for impartial voting maps in Florida, including volunteer opportunities and legislative updates."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_add_component","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_add_component":null},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_take_action","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_take_action":{"heading":"Take Action","button_text":"","manually_curate":true,"action":["{\"site_id\":\"45\",\"post_type\":\"act\",\"post_id\":2508}"]}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_banner","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_banner":{"use_donate_banner":true,"title":"Title [highlight]with highlighting[\/highlight] and additional text.","button":null,"image":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_related_articles","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_related_articles":{"heading":"Updates","button_text":"See all Related Articles","manually_curate":false,"articles":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_resources","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_resources":{"heading":"Related Resources","button_text":"See all Related Resources","manually_curate":true,"resource":["{\"site_id\":\"45\",\"post_type\":\"resource\",\"post_id\":283}","{\"site_id\":\"45\",\"post_type\":\"resource\",\"post_id\":282}"]}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_press","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_press":{"heading":"Press","button_text":"","manually_curate":false,"press":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_events","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_events":{"heading":"Events"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_our_experts","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_our_experts":{"heading":"","manually_curate":false,"people":null}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - 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