Redistricting Rewrite Before Florida Senate Panel
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/AP) — The Florida Senate Reapportionment Committee is going back to work Tuesday to create yet another new redistricting map.
The panel is set Tuesday to vote out a revised Senate map to fix problems in the Republican-controlled Legislature's original plan.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled eight districts and a scheme for renumbering all 40 districts violated new anti-gerrymandering standards in the Florida Constitution. The justices, though, upheld the 120-district House map.
Reapportionment Committee Chairman Don Gaetz released a proposed revision, including a major change in his Panhandle district, on Saturday. The panel will consider Gaetz' plan and modifications proposed by other senators.
"The districts were redrawn, along with any affected districts, in accordance with constitutional standards as defined by the Supreme Court," Gaetz wrote in a memo.
All Senate districts are supposed to have relatively equal populations under both the Fair Districts standards and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The final version will go to the full Senate later this week and the House next week then it returns to the justices. They can redraw it to correct any remaining problems.
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