Voting rights take it on the chin in Washington and Tallahassee today
News and commentary for discerning Floridians and other Americans
By J.C. Bruce
Voting rights took a one-two punch today from Washington and Tallahassee.
In D.C., the Supreme Court, as widely expected, threw out a Louisiana congressional-district map drawn to create a second minority district in a state in which a third of the population is Black.
Louisiana has six seats in Congress, and under the map before the court, that allowed two out of those six seats to be held by Blacks, directly proportional to the state’s minority population.
But in a 6-3 decision, the majority Republican court threw that out calling it “racial gerrymandering.”
The ramifications of this indefensible decision will likely be felt all over the country, although in Florida, the other epicenter of voting rights distress today, racial considerations in drawing congressional maps had already been ruled unconstitutional.
And while the Supremes were gutting a key safeguard of the Voting Rights Act, the Florida Legislature, also as expected, voted to approve Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hastily reconfigured congressional district map blatantly designed to squeeze four Democrats out of office.
Currently, 20 out of the state’s 28 congressional seats are held by Republicans. DeSantis believes with this newly redrawn map—finally sketched out over this past weekend—those numbers could change to 24-4.
Here’s what one independent candidate for the Florida House had to say about that:
“This is subjugation without representation,” Chadd Charland of Fernandina Beach said. “Race neutral? Try race neutralized, perhaps. The map effectively neutralizes minority voters. Forty-one percent of Florida voters are registered Republicans. The governor’s new map gives 86 percent of Florida’s congressional representation to Republicans. Forty-one does not equal 86, and you should 86 this map.”
In the Florida Senate, the vote was 21-17 with four Republicans and one independent voting with Democrats to oppose the map. In the House, the vote was along party lines, although, interestingly, no Republican spoke up in the bill’s favor even though voting for it.
Democrats and other groups are certain to oppose this decision in court, although it should be noted that six of the seven justices on the Florida Supreme Court were appointed by DeSantis.
It should also be remembered that in drawing up this map, Republicans were using the 2024 election results to plot out how to move voters around. That was a presidential election year, and Trump voters turned out en masse. Since then, Trump’s approval rating has plummeted while Democrats in multiple elections have outperformed expectations.
One risk of this move by DeSantis is that in order to undercut Democratic strongholds, he had to weaken Republican districts by moving out G.O.P voters. It is entirely possible that if large numbers of Republicans sit out or switch alliances, and if independents side with Democrats, this entire maneuver could backfire.
That is already a concern in Texas, where this stampede to redraw congressional maps began at Trump’s urging.
They’re now calling that a dummymander.
J.C. Bruce is the founder of Tropic Press. He is an award-winning journalist and author. He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and his native Florida.
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J.C. Bruce
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When will Americans drop their paranoia and relax? Immigrants are mostly good not evil; guns kill; democracy requires intelligent, informed voters; voting is a right and should be extremely easy to do as it was years ago without serious issues!