Diane Dimperio and Lynn Frazier Guest columnists to The Gainesville Sun

The ability to vote for our lawmakers is the cornerstone of our democracy. Access to the ballot box has evolved over time and has, until recently, demonstrated progress toward racial equity.

African slaves were freed in 1865 but were not awarded the right to vote until the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870. At that time only men could vote but even when the 19th Amendment gave “women” the right to vote in 1920, Black women were not able to vote in many states.

Despite the legal right to vote, insurmountable barriers were created, especially in the South, to keep Black people from voting. A landmark for minority voting rights was the 1965 passage of the Federal Voting Rights Act. This allows voters to file a lawsuit against a state or local government that has denied or limited their voting rights based on race, color or membership in a language minority group.

Florida is now eroding the progress we have made toward voting equity. In the 2021 legislative session, Florida passed a law that is expected to suppress voting, especially among people of color.

Over the last several decades in Florida, one party has become a consistent majority in the Legislature and has been using its political clout to maintain and expand its dominance. An effective strategy for protecting a political party is through redistricting.

State and congressional lawmakers are elected to represent designated areas called districts. Using historical voting data, districts can be gerrymandered — that is, drawn to increase the likelihood of one party winning. In addition to political bias, districts can be drawn to reduce the impact of minority voters.

In 2010 the League of Women Voters and other fair district advocates pushed for, and voters passed, two constitutional amendments to ensure fair districts. The amendments prohibit political gerrymandering and enshrine minority rights in the Florida Constitution.

The Florida Constitution says “… districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice …”

Although the Florida Constitution protects minority rights, redistricting is highly technical, so determining if district maps are constitutionally compliant is complicated. Districts can be constructed that are “majority-minority” which means the minority group represents more than 50% of the voting aged residents.

Districts can also be “minority-opportunity,” which means the minority can elect a candidate of their choice. For example, if 44% of voting aged residents in a district are Black and typically vote for a Democrat, and 60% of the total district voted for Joe Biden in 2020, the district could be considered a “minority opportunity district.”

The League of Women Voters has been urging Senate and House redistricting committees to analyze their proposed maps to ensure constitutional compliance. Assuring minority voting rights is a two-step process.

The first step is to determine the total number of minority-opportunity districts needed. This is called a “racially polarized voting analysis” and is based on the size of the minority populations in the state.

The second step, called a "functional analysis,” determines how the designated minority opportunity districts will perform in an election — in other words to see if minority voters have the opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.

The full Senate has approved its district map and the House subcommittee has selected a map it will be submitting to the full House for approval. Both maps include the same number of minority-opportunity districts as the maps based on 2010 census data.

In 2020 Florida had more than 2.7 million additional people than it did in 2010. More than 90% of the added population were non-white. Neither the House nor Senate conducted a racially polarized voting analysis to determine if the number of minority opportunity districts would offer fair representation to Hispanic and Black populations.

The Senate has approved its version of a congressional map which does not increase the number of minority opportunity districts. The House is expected to make a recommendation soon and is likely to do the same.

In an unprecedented move, the governor’s office has submitted a congressional map. It is politically biased in favor of Republicans and, experts agree, diminishes the ability of minorities to elect representatives of their choice.

We urge you to get involved. Visit the Florida Redistricting website to submit testimony telling our legislators to give all our citizens a fair chance to choose their representatives. Visit the LWVAC Redistricting webpage for additional information on redistricting.

Diane Dimperio is the redistricting point person for the League of Women Voters of Alachua County and Lynn Frazier is the chapter president. 

As published by The Gainesville Sun, January 31. 2022

See the original article here: https://www.gainesville.com/story/opinion/2022/01/31/diane-dimperio-lynn-frazier-get-involved-floridas-redistricting/9243222002/