Another special session of the Florida State Legislature ended in failure yesterday. State Lawmakers failed to agree on a new Florida Senate redistricting map, with the Senate vote 16-23 against a plan approved by the House. The vote means that, like Congressional redistricting last month, the Senate redistricting map will move to the courts. Senators were opposed to the House map because it would have split up several Senate districts in what those Senators thought was unfavorable to them. The areas of most concerns were Sarasota County, Lake County, and the Miami Dade area.

Despite the disagreements over these key districts, many legislators agreed on this: that compliance with the Fair Districts amendments passed by voters in 2012, which prohibit the configuration of districts to favor one party or group, or incumbents, was nearly impossible to work with. Senate Reapportionment Chair Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton) had this to say, “ I think the amendments may be unworkable, to be frank with you”. He also noted that now voter’s rights group can come forward with their own maps, making the claim they are more compliant with the Constitution. House redistricting Chair, Rep Jose Oliva (R-Miami) stated that though the Amendments are difficult, “it’s not impossible. It’s certainly not ideal”.

Doug King, attorney for the voting rights organizations, blasted lawmakers for blaming the amendments for their failure to do their jobs. “By blaming the amendments, rather than themselves, they are simply perpetuating their opposition to the will of the people and engaging in the very conduct that Florida voters wanted to eliminate”.

Lawmakers have already talked about changing the redistricting process in the future, including the idea of appointing a special redistricting commission that would recommend maps to the Legislature. Oliva certainly sees both sides of the process. “I’m for looking into it, because I certainly think we need to have maps that aren’t disputed halfway into the next Census”. Yet he wondered where people for this Commission would come from and who would appoint these people, and what their motivations might be. Democrats have long supported a commission because lawmakers seem incapable of keeping politics out of the process. House Minority Leader, Mark Pafford (D-West Palm Beach), stated, “These are political animals. Everybody seems to be worried about where they are going next, in the Senate, in the House and you cannot possibly have a system that extricates that political type of thought out of a map process”.

Next stop for the Senate redistricting process is the inside of Leon County Circuit Judge George Reynolds courtroom, where the trial court approves a map and then sends to the Florida Supreme court for final approval. Dollar estimates of the three Florida Legislature special sessions are expected to cost taxpayers  approximately $11 million dollars.