LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF FLORIDA

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Common Cause Florida                                                         Press Release                                                                                 

For Immediate Release                                            Contact: Ben Wilcox

March 23, 2006                                                                    (850) 222-3883

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 “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.  Common Cause will continue to push for meaningful redistricting reform to create a fair process that holds politicians accountable to the 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 percent. And not one incumbent legislator or member of Congress was defeated in 2004.  These amendments will make political races more competitive.
 
Without the reform in this amendment, 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/