Have you ever heard someone say, “My vote doesn’t count?” That may not be an excuse after November 7th if the Committee for Fair Elections has its way. A citizens’ initiative spearheaded by Common Cause and a coalition of other distinguished citizens’ groups would take the responsibility of redistricting away from Florida’s legislature. The move would give the power back to the voters by amending the Florida Constitution to establish standards for districts drawn by a non-partisan commission in time for the 2008 elections. Over 900,000 Floridians have signed the petition, the first milestone of getting the initiative on the ballot. The Secretary of State has now certified those signatures authorizing it as Constitutional Amendment #5.
According to the Committee for Fair Elections, “not a single incumbent in Florida’s State Legislature or in Florida’s U.S. Congressional delegation was defeated in 2004. In that cycle, 72.5% of state legislative races had only one major party candidate. Of the 142 seats up for re-election, 103 were uncontested by a major party. That made Florida the second least competitive state behind Arkansas”.
The reason? After the last census, the party in power, in this instance, the Republicans, gerrymandered the state legislative and congressional districts to guarantee the re-election of Republican incumbents. When the Democrats were the majority power, they, too, practiced gerrymandering.
I support this initiative and urge voters to vote, “YES”, for Redistricting Reform (Amendment #5) on November 7th.
