Mid-decade redistricting is bad for Florida. Don’t do it

First published in the Tampa Bay Times on December 10, 2025
https://www.tampabay.com/viewpoints/2025/12/10/mid-term-redistricting-is-bad-florida-dont-do-it-column

Voters Choose our Elected Officials, Not the Other Way Around
By Jackie Azis

League members and voting rights advocates boarded the bus to Tallahassee in Tampa on December 4 with hopes of being heard at the State Capitol as the House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting convened its first meeting. 

Upon arrival, the room was overflowing with hundreds of Floridians who had traveled from all over the state to attend the meeting and to speak out against mid-decade redistricting. But our elected officials, who are accountable to us, refused to take even a single public comment on the matter, and the meeting was shockingly and insultingly brief. These same legislators who muted our voices at the meeting are the same decision makers trying to mute our voting power. We will not be deterred. We will not be silenced. 

President Trump has called on Republican state leaders to increase the number of Republican seats in Congress. Florida, like other states across the country,  is now looking to rearrange districts off-cycle, in the middle of the decade.  

As we heard at the December 4 meeting, the House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting is readying to draw a new voting map during the rapidly approaching 2026 Legislative Session. Chairman Mike Redondo described the committee’s fancy mapping software. It is obvious to us that its members are charged to ferret out each voter’s party identity as they form new Congressional district borders favoring one party. This is the essence of gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering slices and dices voters to dilute the power of some groups, strengthen others, and increase the likelihood of desired outcomes. In essence, instead of allowing voters to choose their representatives, politicians choose their voters. By making elected representatives less accountable to the people they serve, gerrymandering undermines public trust in elections, compromises the votes of marginalized citizens, and weakens the foundation of our democracy. 

However, we Floridians who do not want to see this happen have an important and distinctive advantage. Many of the states passing gerrymandered new maps don’t have constitutional language prohibiting it—but Florida does. 

Back in 2010, Floridians passed the Fair Districts Amendments with 63 percent of the vote. These amendments are now part of our Florida State Constitution, which explicitly states: “In establishing Congressional district boundaries: (1) No apportionment plan or individual district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.” That means partisan mid-decade redistricting efforts are not only unethical and unfair—they are also unconstitutional in Florida. 

As it is, Florida’s previously gerrymandered maps already give a lopsided advantage to the majority party. Redrawing lines now for further partisan advantage goes against both the will of the people and our State Constitution. It threatens to set a dangerous precedent—a lawless step along a rocky path of endless political map-meddling. 

The mid-decade redistricting now being floated also represents a profoundly irresponsible use of public funds. Redistricting is expensive, and Floridians are rightly worried about genuinely urgent issues such as skyrocketing insurance costs, housing, and infrastructure. The last thing we need is the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars in a rushed, unnecessary, and partisan redistricting process. In fact, according to recent polling by Common Cause, a majority of Florida voters from across political affiliations oppose mid-decade redistricting.

All this is why League of Women Voters of Florida members traveled to Tallahassee for the December 4 meeting and why members will show up at the next meeting on this issue on December 10 and all others to come. It is also why we urge every member of our community to take a few minutes to call, write, and email their Florida House Representative and State Senator and tell them: Don’t cheat. Don’t break the law. Say no to mid-decade redistricting. 

Use the “Find Your Representative” tool at flhouse.gov to find state legislators. Urge them to oppose any attempt to redraw Florida’s congressional map before the 2030 Census. Remind them that gerrymandering for political purposes is illegal and goes against not only the will of the people, but our State Constitution. 

Remind them that Floridians cared enough about fair voting districts to enshrine them in our state constitution, and we expect our elected officials to honor the intent of their constituents and obey what is now state law. 

Floridians have a proud history of rising up to do the right thing when the occasion demands it of us. And this one surely does. 

Jackie Azis is the president of the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area