by Donna Waller, President, League of Women Voters of Alachua County
I started writing this on April 28th, the opening day of the Legislative special session on midterm redistricting, AI, and vaccines. That was a lot to do in four days, unless the legislature ceded all authority to the governor. The Legislature declined to deal with anything but redistricting and gave the Governor what he wanted.
The League of Women Voters has focused on redistricting the whole legislative session. Our national, state, and local levels all oppose it. No matter which party does it, it is rigging the game. The midterm redistricting in Texas unleashed a cascade of what I now call retaliatory redistricting. Maybe it will end with us, maybe it won’t.
Let me take my LWV hat off for a moment. Before I retired I taught American and State and Local Government at Santa Fe College. Every standard textbook had a chapter on Voting and Elections. Every semester I discussed the expansion, over American history, of the right to vote and the basic rules governing that activity. Every semester I said these words, “There are two major rules governing reapportionment: 1. Legislative districts must be roughly equal in population; 2. No gerrymandering.” And yes, I supported this by referencing court cases.
Which brings me back to the LWV stance….We have been lobbying hard against midterm redistricting in Florida. Tallahassee has been full of LWV members from all over the state. The state LWV has sent talking points to our local chapter, but they can be summarized in one sentence: Partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional in the state of Florida. In 2010, the Fair Districts Amendment was passed by Florida voters and added to the state constitution. The LWV was instrumental in its creation and passage. It specifically forbids partisan gerrymandering. Not all state constitutions contain this prohibition. Ours does. Lawsuits will follow.
Does midterm redistricting have to be about partisan gerrymandering? No, but here it was. On April 27, the Governor put forth a set of maps, drawn up by someone in the executive branch, which showed a reduction of Congressional districts leaning toward Democrats from eight to four. If any Legislators were consulted, they are not speaking about it. Interestingly, the Governor chose to release these maps, one day before the session began, on Fox News.
Here’s what the LWV chapter in Alachua County has done. We have lobbied, too! The state LWV sent the chapters a tool kit of activities and ideas, and we have used several. The most basic one is that we have been encouraging our membership of several hundred to contact our legislative delegation on a regular basis expressing opposition to midterm redistricting. We have had two events writing postcards to our Representatives and to Speaker Perez and Senator Albritton about redistricting. They say, “The voters should choose the politicians. The politicians should not choose the voters.” Two weeks ago, League members spent three hours on Sunday and two on Tuesday in Westside Park. People filled out 300 postcards. We bundled them and sent them to the Legislators. Perhaps they had some impact. Four Republican Senators, including our own Senator, Jennifer Bradley, voted against redistricting.
People often ask me, “Why join the LWV?” Many people who filled out the postcards thanked us for being there. When we thanked them for showing up, they almost all said, “We just wanted to do something. This was easy.” Our fundamental job as LWV members is to make participation of all kinds, but especially voting, easy and informed. That’s what democracy is all about.