Representative Joseph Geller (D- Aventura), Democratic Ranking Member of the House Redistricting Committee, today issued the following statement concerning the Florida Supreme Court’s initial proceedings to review the House & Senate district maps:
“If the House map is thrown out for being constitutionally deficient under Fair Districts, or because it violates the Voting Rights Act, it will be after a full trial with all the facts in the sunshine. It would not likely be after the extremely limited review available at the Florida Supreme Court right now. This is especially the case given the extremely compressed timeline the Court is operating under for this initial review. Filing in the Supreme Court proceeding would only have delayed proceedings and slowed down access to a trial.
I can’t speak for everyone, but this may be the reason that no one in the state filed comments or briefs in this proceeding. If anyone wants to know where we stand on the maps, they have only to look at the extensive record we developed in committees and on the House Floor to see our concerns about minority voter packing and cracking, lack of language minority voter protection, and indeed the entire redistricting process in the House,” said Representative Geller.
