In 2010 over 60% of voters in Florida voted to approve Amendment 6 to stop politicians from gerrymandering, which manipulates the boundaries of a voting district to favor 1 party. In 2014 a judge had to rule on this because Rick Scott doesnt care what Floridians want. And the Florida House Republicans have spent about $200,000 on legal fees challenging the law – in other words, the hell with what Floridians want. Instead they will fight what Floridians want by using Floridas taxpayer money. orlandosentinel/news/blogs/political-pulse/os-judge-rules-florida-congeressional-map-violates-fair-districts-standards-20140710,0,4368136.post Floridas re-drawn congressional map intentionally favors Republicans in violation of the anti-gerrymandering standards voters approved in 2010 and will have to be re-drawn, according to a ruling late Thursday from a Tallahassee judge. Florida voters in 2010 passed two constitutional amendments known as the Fair Districts amendments which required lawmakers to draw legislative and congressional seats more compactly, within existing geographic and local government boundaries, and without intentional favoritism toward political parties or incumbents. Immediately after the Florida Legislature passed its first attempt at maps, the Florida Supreme Court in 2012 ruled the state Senate seats violated the mandate and ordered them redrawn. While GOP lawmakers, consultants and staffs professed innocence throughout the trial, Lewis wrote there was too much circumstantial evidence of it, too many coincidences to uphold the maps. But the judge reserved much of the blame in his ruling for the GOP political operatives, which he wrote made a mockery of the Legislatures proclaimed open and transparent process by working to draw partisan maps in the shadow of that process. washingtonpost/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/11/a-judge-says-rules-floridas-gerrymandering-went-too-far-heres-what-he-means/ Florida passed a law in 2010 to try and keep this sort of thing from happening. It didnt work -- or, rather, it took a judge to step in and determine that it had been violated. And, given that the ruling will be appealed, what the judge calls a violation of the law wont be corrected until at least the 2016 elections. washingtonpost/politics/judge-rules-florida-legislature-broke-laws-on-maps/2014/07/11/75114878-08ed-11e4-ba5b-b9d8a4daba13_story.html?tid=pm_politics_pop The judge based his decision on the 2010 “Fair Districts” amendment approved by voters that says districts cannot be drawn to favor an incumbent or a member of a political party. palmbeachpost/news/news/state-regional/us-judge-upholds-florida-fair-district-law-voters-/nLxqR/ Ungaros ruling deals with Amendment 6, approved by 62.9 percent of voters in November, which sets guidelines for congressional redistricting. A companion amendment dealing with state House and Senate redistricting passed with 62.6 percent support and has not been challenged. The Florida House has spent about $200,000 on legal fees challenging the law, a spokeswoman said today.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 13:17:50 +0000
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