Florida: Tension mounts over which lawyers get access to Florida Senate redistricting maps | Miami Herald

Tensions mounted Wednesday more than a week before the special session on Senate redistricting is set to begin as House and Senate leaders acknowledged that staff had begun drafting maps using guidelines agreed to exclusively by the leaders and their lawyers, but the lawyer hired to represent Senate Democrats would not be allowed to take part in the process. Senate Redistricting Chairman Bill Galvano acknowledged that the drawing of Senate districts is well underway by House and Senate staff for the three-week special session that begins Oct. 19. They are working in a sequestered space in the Senate redistricting suite and are being advised by the lawyers hired by the GOP-led Senate and House but, he said, the Senate Democrats will not have a separate lawyer at the table. Senate Democrat Leader Arthenia Joyner told the Herald/Times she has hired Tallahassee attorney Mark Herron to represent Senate Democrats in the redistricting process, using funds from the Florida Democratic Party, after Senate President Andy Gardiner twice rejected her request to allow the Democratic caucus to have its own lawyer advise them during the drawing of the Senate redistricting map.

Florida: Lawmakers set the stage for special session on redrawing district maps | News Service of Florida

Legislative leaders hope to have a new map of the 40 state Senate districts done by 3 p.m. on Nov. 6, according to the official “call” of a special redistricting session scheduled to begin in two weeks. House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, issued the call Monday for the special session, which will start at noon Oct. 19. Legislative leaders earlier announced the dates of the session, but the call provides formal details. Lawmakers have to draw new Senate districts as part of a settlement with voting-rights organizations and voters who sued to overturn the existing map under the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” redistricting standards approved by voters in 2010. The current map was drawn in 2012, following the once-a-decade U.S. Census.

Florida: Judge to Unveil Redistricting Map | Wall Street Journal

A Florida judge is poised to unveil his plan for reshaping the state’s congressional boundaries, the latest chapter in a contentious and increasingly messy effort to strip away partisan politics from redistricting. At the instruction of the Florida Supreme Court, Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis is weighing seven proposals for redrawing boundaries advanced by the Republican-led legislative chambers and Democrat-allied voter groups. The state high court set a deadline of Oct. 17 for him to recommend a new map based on guidelines they issued in their ruling. Lawyers say Judge Lewis could release his plan as early as this week.

Florida: House, Senate reach agreement on congressional redistricting | Jacksonville Business Journal

As congressional mapmakers defended their versions of districts in a hearing before a Tallahassee judge, the House and Senate announced Friday that they had reached agreement on how to move forward with a process to draw new lines for the state Senate in a special session starting next month. There were few revelations during Friday's hearing on the congressional districts, expected to wrap up Monday. Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis is expected to either choose one of seven maps --- offered by lawmakers, voting-rights organizations, and a group of voters backed by the Florida Democratic Party --- or combine the maps in a new proposal. Ultimately, Lewis' recommendation will go to the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled in July that a map approved by the Legislature in 2012 and tweaked two years later violated a voter-approved constitutional ban on political gerrymandering.

Florida: 2016 election will again test Florida | Herald-Tribune

As the nation’s largest swing state heading into the 2016 presidential election, Florida’s election system will be tested again in a national spotlight. Florida’s electoral system drew unprecedented scrutiny and legal challenges with its decisive 537-vote edge for President George W. Bush in the 2000 election. In 2012, Florida became a national laughingstock when it was the last state to officially count its votes in the less contested re-election of President Barack Obama. Since then, Florida has made some changes to its voting system, but falls short in several key areas. And that’s a pattern common to many states, according to a report from the National Commission on Voting Rights. The report is the second from the NCVR, which conducted 25 state and regional hearings in 2013 and 2014, collecting testimony from voters, academics and activists, including a hearing in Miami.

Florida: Fight over congressional map fueled by Senate power struggle | Miami Herald

Sen. Tom Lee, one of the Senate’s most powerful Republicans, took the stand Friday in the ongoing trial over how to configure Florida’s 27 congressional districts and said that he did not draw a district to benefit himself and he had no intention of running for Congress. It was a rare, personal moment in the unprecedented process that has reshaped how redistricting works in Florida. But, while the testimony was designed by the Senate to undercut attacks by the Republican-led House that the Senate map was drawn to benefit incumbent Republicans, it also exposed how the congressional trial is really just a practice run. Leaders in the House and Senate have concluded that the outcome of the trial will have a direct impact on the drawing of something more personal than congressional districts — the Senate map — because how the case is resolved could decide how much input legislators will have in shaping that plan.

Florida: Redistricting court drama resumes; Supremes to review next month | Orlando Sentinel

Lawyers sparred over Florida's congressional districts in court Thursday, the latest episode of a three-year battle that has left the state without political boundaries for the 2016 election. The case is in court because the Florida Supreme Court threw out the prior maps in July, ruling that GOP operatives had infiltrated the redistricting process and packed Democratic voters in District 5, a skinny district that snaked from Jacksonville to Orlando. Leon Circuit Judge Terry Lewis will now consider as many as seven proposals for the maps submitted by both chambers of the Legislature, the League of Women Voters and other plaintiffs. The trial will continue into next week, and Lewis will make a final decision and send it to the Supreme Court for review by Oct. 17. Already, litigation and special sessions related to redistricting have cost taxpayers about $11 million.

Florida: 12-County Coalition in Florida Seeks New Voting Machines By Election Season | GovTech

After the Bush-Gore debacle in 2000, Florida became proactive. Punch cards and hanging chads were replaced with optical scanners.
But that was 15 years ago, and those new optical scanners are now old technology. “It’s an area of concern,” said Highlands County Elections Supervisor Penny Ogg. Her office has kept maintenance agreements. “They get a yearly going over by the vendor,” Ogg said.
Nevertheless, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner has placed Highlands in a 30-county mix for voting machine replacements. A 12-county coalition with 14-year-old machines has asked for grants from the Department of State, and they’re asking the state with its greater purchasing power to buy the machines.

Florida: Redistricting hearing focuses on dispute over Miami districts | Miami Herald

The latest chapter in Florida’s redistricting saga played out Thursday in a Leon County courtroom as two Miami congressional districts emerged as the heart of the differences over which of seven maps should be the one chosen by the court. Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis must decide which map, or pieces of maps, he will recommend to the Florida Supreme Court by the Oct. 17 deadline. The court invalidated the map drawn by the Legislature in 2012 because it violated the constitutional ban on protecting incumbents and political parties. After the Legislature reached a stalemate in a special session, the high court ordered Lewis to choose from proposals from the House, Senate and the group of voters who successfully challenged the original map.

Florida: Political operative charged in Miami-Dade elections case | Miami Herald

A political operative surrendered to face criminal charges Tuesday after prosecutors said he manipulated elections for community councils in Southwest Miami-Dade. David Alberto Carcache, 34, was charged with falsifying records, aiding and abetting an elections-code violation and false swearing. According to prosecutors, the unregistered lobbyist Carcache arranged for three candidates to run for community councils in Kendall and West Kendall, even though they did not live in the neighborhoods and were not eligible to run. He is alleged to have prepared bogus qualifying documents and maintained control over the candidates’ email accounts. He also submitted fraudulent campaign financial records, prosecutors said.

Florida: Justices reject ‘discovery’ request in redistricting fight | News Service of Florida

With a Leon County circuit judge ready to hear arguments Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court has rejected a request that could have shed more light on congressional redistricting maps proposed by groups that have waged a long-running legal battle against the Legislature. The Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision Monday, turned down a request from House attorneys to allow additional information-gathering — through a legal process known as discovery — about proposed maps submitted by the League of Women Voters of Florida, Common Cause and a group of individual plaintiffs.

Florida: National Voter Registration Day: Be election-ready — register to vote | The Tampa Tribune

Today is National Voter Registration Day, and we are encouraging all eligible Floridians to register to vote or update their registration if they have moved since the last election. September also is National Voter Registration Month, and we are asking Floridians to set aside just a few moments to register to vote, or if already registered, to go online and check that their registration information is correct and up to date. Once you have checked your status, if you are on Twitter, post a tweet with the hashtag #CelebrateNVRD and encourage your followers to do a check of their registration status. During the 2015 legislative session, the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections (FSASE) and the Bipartisan Policy Center worked together to educate the public and legislators on the nonpartisan policy advantages of Online Voter Registration (OVR).

Florida: House redistricting lawyers want to grill Democrat map drawers | Tampa Bay Times

Arguing that "neither political party holds a monopoly on gerrymandering,'' lawyers for the Florida House on Thursday asked the Florida Supreme Court to allow them to ask the redistricting challengers questions about the Democrat-leaning firms that drew their proposed congressional map. "Without apparent shame, Plaintiffs have presented to the trial court alternative maps that were drawn, reviewed, discussed, modified, and approved in a closed process, in complete darkness, by national political operatives,'' the House lawyers wrote in the motion. "The fact that Plaintiffs’ maps, despite their origins, are pending before the trial court for a possible recommendation to this Court should dismay and disturb all Floridians."

Florida: Lawmakers File Redistricting Plans With Judge | News Service of Florida

Lawmakers on Monday filed three potential maps of the state's 27 congressional districts for a Leon County judge to consider, as the deadline for turning plans into the court approached. The state House wants Circuit Judge Terry Lewis to approve the last map that House members voted out during a special redistricting session that collapsed last month, while the Senate is floating two alternative proposals for the judge to consider. After the session collapsed, the Florida Supreme Court gave Lewis the task of coming up with a map for justices to review. The Supreme Court struck down the current congressional map in July for violating the anti-gerrymandering "Fair Districts" standards approved by voters in 2010.

Florida: House and Senate stick to script in congressional redistricting plans sent to court | Palm Beach Post

Because of Rosh Hashanah, proposed maps from a voters’ coalition that has successfully challenged legislative redistricting plans are not expected to be made public until Tuesday. But the House stood by the plan it approved on a 60-38 vote last month. Lawyers for the chamber also submitted to Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis a staff-drawn “base” map that had been prepared in cooperation with the Senate, before that chamber made dramatic changes unacceptable to the House. The base map was turned into Lewis “for informational purposes,” a House spokesman said.

Florida: Advocates hope to get felon voting rights on 2016 ballot | News13

In a drive that could have sweeping electoral implications, advocates for Florida's roughly two million convicted felons are working to place an amendment on the 2016 ballot that would reverse the state's policy against the automatic restoration of felon voting rights. The policy, which was briefly lifted during the administration of former Gov. Charlie Crist, was reinstated in 2011 with a vote by Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet. It requires felons to wait at least five years after the completion of their sentences before they're allowed to apply for a hearing on reinstatement of their voting rights.

Florida: Judge wants proposed congressional maps by Monday | News Service of Florida

All of the parties involved in a legal fight over the shape of the state’s congressional districts have until Monday to submit maps they believe should be used in the looming 2016 elections, a Leon County judge ruled Friday. An order approved by Circuit Judge Terry Lewis lays out the timeline for the latest stage of the courtroom battle, now in its fourth year. The Legislature’s version of the congressional map was thrown out in July by the Florida Supreme Court, which said the plan violated the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards approved by voters in 2010. The process for redrawing the map plunged into chaos when lawmakers emerged from a special session last month without a deal on what the state’s 27 U.S. House districts should look like. A hearing held Friday by Lewis followed another Supreme Court ruling last week on how to proceed.

Florida: Judge sets Monday deadline for submitting Florida redistricting maps | Miami Herald

Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis gave the Florida House and Senate, and the two groups of redistricting challengers, until the end of the day on Monday to submit their proposals for him to choose from when he recommends Florida’s final congressional districts map. At a 30-minute hearing, the Tallahassee judge approved in concept a proposal that would also require that anyone who submits a map to disclose who drew it, why they drew the lines they choose and how it comports to the constitutional guidelines in Florida’s Fair Districts law. He is likely to receive four maps — one each from the House and Senate and one each from the two plaintiffs groups, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause and the coalition of Democrat-leaning voters known as the Romo plaintiffs. The Florida Supreme Court last week ordered Lewis to choose between the maps after the Legislature ended its special session in August without an agreement on a map. The court said that Lewis must accept proposals from the parties and choose among them to recommend which of them most adheres to the July 9 ruling that set guidelines for lawmakers to follow when redrawing the map.

Florida: House balks at another redistricting session | News Service of Florida

House Speaker Steve Crisafulli on Tuesday all but ruled out a special session to take another stab at drawing new districts for Florida’s congressional delegation, making it increasingly likely that the task will fall to the courts. In a memo sent to state House members, Crisafulli indicated he would not back off a demand that lawmakers approve a “base map” aimed at satisfying a July Supreme Court ruling, which found that existing congressional districts violate the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” standards approved by voters in 2010. During a special session last month, senators tried to amend the base map, but House leaders said that could cause the courts to strike down districts again. The session imploded after the House and Senate failed to reach agreement. The Supreme Court on Friday sent the redistricting issue back to Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis, who has overseen long-running litigation about the congressional map. But justices left open the possibility that lawmakers still could go into special session and agree on districts.

Florida: Redistricting challengers used data and emails to piece together signs of conspiracy | Tampa Bay Times

The legal team that uncovered the shadow redistricting process that invalidated Florida’s congressional and Senate districts didn’t rely just on maps and cloak-and-dagger emails to prove that legislators broke the law. The best clues came in the form of data — millions of census blocks — delivered electronically and found in the files of political operatives who fought for two years to shield it. The Florida Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in July that lawmakers were guilty of violating the anti-gerrymandering provisions of the Florida Constitution and ordered them to redraw the congressional map. It was a landmark ruling that declared the entire process had been “tainted with improper political intent” — a verdict so broad that it prompted an admission from the state Senate that lawmakers had violated the Constitution when they drew the Senate redistricting plan in 2012. The Legislature has scheduled a special session in October to start over on that map.

Florida: How sleuths decoded redistricting conspiracy | Miami Herald

The legal team that uncovered the shadow redistricting process that invalidated Florida’s congressional and Senate districts didn’t rely just on maps and cloak-and-dagger emails to prove that legislators broke the law.　 The best clues came in the form of data — millions of census blocks — delivered electronically and found in the files of political operatives who fought for two years to shield it. The Florida Supreme Court ruled 5-2 in July that lawmakers were guilty of violating the anti-gerrymandering provisions of the Florida Constitution and ordered them to redraw the congressional map. It was a landmark ruling that declared the entire process had been “tainted with improper political intent” — a verdict so broad that it prompted an admission from the state Senate that lawmakers had violated the Constitution when they drew the Senate redistricting plan in 2012. The Legislature has scheduled a special session in October to start over on that map. But the breakthrough for the legal team — lawyers for the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, a coalition of Democrat-leaning voters and their redistricting experts — came just days before the May 19, 2014, trial on the congressional map was set to begin.

Florida: State Supreme Court allows for another redistricting session, but orders trial court to take charge | Miami Herald

The Florida Supreme Court on Friday ordered the trial court to return to the redistricting drawing board, allowing it to review the rival maps submitted by the House and Senate and choose between them. The court rejected a request by the plaintiffs to take over the drawing of the congressional map after a two-week special session of the Legislature in August ended without an enacted map. But the high court opened the door to the state Senate’s request to conduct another special session on redistricting, as long as the work is completed by the deadline the court set in July — Oct. 17. The ruling orders Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis to hold a hearing on the “proposed remedial plans” from both the House and the Senate, as well as any amendments offered to them. “However, the Legislature is not precluded from enacting a remedial plan prior to the time the trial court sets for the hearing,” the court added.

Florida: Redistricting war expands in federal courts | Orlando Sentinel

The legal arguments about Florida's political maps continue to mushroom. While the Florida Supreme Court and the Legislature grapple with how congressional districts will be drawn, more legal fights are building in federal courts. Voting-rights groups Friday formally sought to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed this month by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, who is among the most-outspoken opponents of a redistricting process spurred by the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts requirements. The groups, which helped spearhead voter approval of the requirements in 2010, argued in a court document that Brown's position in the case would "eviscerate the Fair Districts amendments." Also late last week, a coalition that includes state Rep. Mike Hill, R-Pensacola Beach, filed a separate lawsuit in federal court alleging that the Fair Districts amendments --- and the way they have been carried out --- violate constitutional free-speech and due-process rights.

Florida: Coalition files suit to invalidate redistricting law in Florida | Tampa Bay Times

A bipartisan group of voters added to the list of redistricting lawsuits this week, filing a case in federal court challenging the Fair Districts amendments of the Florida Constitution as unconstitutional. The group, which includes some Alachua-based Republicans who call themselves the "Conservative Coalition for Free Speech and Association," is suing Secretary of State Ken Detzner in an attempt to invalidate the anti-gerrymandering amendments approved by voters in 2010. Several members of the Alachua coalition fought the release of their private emails in pending redistricting lawsuits, claiming it violates their First Amendment rights. The court ordered the release of a limited number of those documents, which showed that many of them were political operatives engaged in what the court called a "shadow redistricting" process that aimed to influence the Legislature's drawing of its maps in a way that favored Republicans.

Florida: Democrats push independent commission amid redistricting mess | Orlando Sentinel

With the Legislature having trouble redrawing new political districts, the job should be given to an independent commission as other states have done, Democrats argue. But Republicans, in charge of the Legislature and whose redistricting efforts have resulted in a legal quagmire, aren't ready to give up the job. Although such commissions have been used in other states for years, only within the past two redistricting cycles have states pushed for more independence for them. But impartiality can be hard to achieve. "The catch is how you define independent," said Tim Storey, state legislative elections expert for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "Some of these commissions are just as partisan as the Legislature."

Florida: Judge Doesn’t Settle Bitter Dispute Over Florida’s Redistricting Plan | The New York Times

A Leon County judge on Tuesday postponed a decision about Florida’s still incomplete congressional redistricting map after Republican legislative leaders failed to agree on how to redraw the boundaries. During a hearing, Judge Terry P. Lewis of Florida’s Second Circuit Court said he did not have the authority to resolve the map dispute without the approval of the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled in July that the current redistricting map was unconstitutional. The judge said he would send a request for guidance to the State Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Florida: Legislative friction sends redistricting case back to Supreme Court | Orlando Sentinel

The Florida Supreme Court ordered lawmakers to redraw the state’s congressional districts. They didn’t do it. Now, the state’s highest court will decide whether to give them more time or to let the courts draw the districts themselves. With the Republican-led House and Senate at odds over redistricting, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis decided Tuesday to forward the unprecedented disagreement to the Florida Supreme Court. “I’m just going to ask them what they want me to do,” Lewis said. “I just don’t feel that I have any authority to do anything other than to report the situation.” In a two-week special session that ended Friday, the House and Senate couldn’t agree to new congressional districts after the court ruled in July that GOP operatives had stealthily submitted maps through proxies favoring the Republican Party, in violation of a constitutional prohibition against drawing new districts favoring political parties.

Florida: Move to let court draw maps could reshape Florida politics — again | Tampa Bay Times

As Florida legislators dissolved their two-week redistricting session Friday without agreement on a congressional map, they acknowledged they were ready to repeat something they had done only once before in state history — turning over the complicated task of drawing maps to the courts. The year was 1992, when Bill Clinton and Ross Perot dominated national politics, Florida voters imposed term limits on politicians and Hurricane Andrew devastated Miami-Dade County. Then, as now, one party controlled government. Lawton Chiles was governor and the House and Senate were run by Democrats. And yet then, as now, political dominance was not enough to overcome the pressures of personal ambition and intra-party divides. The 1992 redistricting session ended in stalemate over a congressional map, and legislators turned the job over to a three-judge panel of federal judges. The court's signature change was the creation of a sprawling, wishbone-shaped minority-majority seat that linked black communities in 14 counties from Jacksonville to Orlando and back through Gainesville.

Florida: Congressional redistricting session facing extension amid acrimony | Sun Sentinel

The battle is over. Nobody won. Florida lawmakers on Friday conceded defeat on redrawing the state's congressional district map and headed home. Unless the legislature calls another special session, or the governor orders one, it will likely fall to the courts to draw the map. The legislature had until Aug. 25 to come up with a map, which the Florida Supreme Court was scheduled to review on Sept. 25. Now, the most likely scenario is that lawyers for the House and Senate will each present their versions of a map to the court, which will either approve one or draw something different. The dispute between the two chambers centered on the Senate's desire to shift district lines in Central Florida, a move that the House did not believe would stand up to the court's scrutiny. Both maps largely agreed on South Florida, with districts 21 and 22 in Broward and Palm Beach counties being stacked on top of one another, rather than the current side-by-side configuration. If another special session is to occur, it would have to happen before Sept. 25.