Name: Ailsa Arias
Course: ENC 1101
Instructor: Cory Greenspan
Date: March 29, 2012
Redistricting/ Redrawing the District Lines of Florida
According to the law, every ten years brings a redistricting of the districts after the census. The arguments is that population has rapidly grown and changed in terms of distribution, hence the need to redistrict or redraw the boundaries in terms of population in order to have all citizens represented fully in the political arena. Basically, “Redistricting is the act of re-dividing the state into new election districts,” (Collins center for public policy 2011). Its aim is enduring there is a balance in the representation of all residents of a state as well as equal distribution of resources to every resident. Nationally, after every census, the population is bigger than it was, and usually redistributed differently from tent years ago. Therefore, redistricting aims at redistributing the political seats throughout the 50 states in order that states that record highest population increase are given more representation.
This process has its advantages as well as a disadvantage. Many will view this as an act used by politicians to redraw the districts to favor their re-election through redistricting in a way that ensures to keep majority seats for a party as well as keeping an incumbent in office. This can also be considered as a way of manipulating the voting, for political benefits, which has been referred to as ‘gerrymandering,’ (Amy 2006). On the other hand, redistricting has its advantages, which are achieving equal representation of all the residents of a state where all districts are made as much equal as possible in terms of population to ensure they are all represented. The other advantage is enhancing sufficient social services provision for all the residents in the state. However, amendment 5 and 6 seek to ensure the elimination of gerrymandering in Florida since it acts to prohibit favored lines drawing.
Manipulation of voting has been highly regarded as the most rampant negative effect of redistricting in Florida. Redistricting occurs every ten years where the boundaries are redrawn depending on the population of the area. Many people have expressed their concerns, with many asking for a new way of drawing the district lines. The legislature was requested to produce a better compact map that would enhance drawing of the district lines to cater for distribution of resources amongst the residents equally. Manipulation of voting through redistricting occurs where a certain line is drawn to favor one party or an incumbent.
Gerrymandering has been used by the politicians to their advantage, where they use it two ways. The first way is using it to protect the seat of those in office, while the second way is using it to ensure a certain party continues to dominate in terms of occupying majority seat in the state. For instance, if one party had more votes than the other did in a certain district, a line could be drawn, where some of the voters would fall in another district contributing to the party having an extra seat. Hence, a party with the majority seats may win not out of the number of voters, rather, just by the district. Many people have raised this concern where they draw lines with an aim to favor a certain party. This kind of gerrymandering is also known as the partisan gerrymandering where the majority party draws lines in a way to ensure there are more wasted voters for the other party. This is done when the ruling party draws lines to include many of the opponent’s voters to their district, where they know they will not contribute to the winning of their preferred candidate. For instance, “If they decide to create a district that is 70 percent Republican, there is little chance the Democratic candidate will win. And Republican candidates will usually lose if a district is drawn so that it is predominantly Democratic,” (Amy 2006). This way, the opponent party will not be in a position to elect enough seats to the house, leaving the ruling party to win.
Considering the changes that occur when redistricting id conducted, an illustration of its political impact can be achieved. For instance, with the current number of congressional districts standing at 25 and bound to increase to 27, several issues will be affected. Florida houses will be between 80 and 125, and the senate seats will be 30 to 40 members. If they remain, as they are, the average population for a house district will be 156,678, 470,033 for a senate district and 696,345 for a congressional district. However, if there are to be more districts or fewer districts, these populations will change tremendously since the districts could be either more populated or less populated. These also mean that if such change occurred where a district is split, a party could gain an extra seat it is in an area where the party is favored.
In addition, redistricting could be used racially with the aim or reducing the vote power of a minority group, where if they are separated to enter into different districts they loose power of winning when their followers are divided into another district. According to Hebert, “In sum, race may still be a factor in a state’s redistricting process, and at times it must be considered to avoid violating the voting rights act,” (79). Minority voting becomes unfair where the minority group could be smaller in one district than in another. For instance, “In Florida, there also has been an issue about minority voting. As a result, minority voting was not fair to those voting because there were more people in one district than another,” (Arias 2012). In the district with a higher population of the minority group will have a higher voting by the minority than the other district. Therefore, during redistricting, such factors ought to be considered. This contributes to many of the minority groups lacking representation in the government since none of them may be elected to power with lines drawn to keep them out.
A real time example of the power of redistricting in changing the political arena to favor one party can be illustrated by the example of Florida, where democrats had dominated for about 120 yeas, (Galderisi 163). This was until in 1994 the domination fell to the republicans, which according to Galderisi, is traceable to the 1992 redistricting, (163). From pressure by the department of justice, the ruling party was forced to create several districts that had supermajorities of blacks and Hispanics. This contributed to three blacks being elected to the congress. Through an alliance of the blacks and the republicans, they were able to gather more seats in Florida. It s obvious that majority party always seek to gather more seats using redistricting where they drawl lines in a way that ensures their win.
Many people having realized the dirty game used by the leaders, amendments 5 and 6 were put in place with an aim of stopping these acts by the leaders that cause voting manipulation. The aim of these amendments was to ensure there is a fair standard in the way the state conducted the legislative and congressional district lines. The amendments seek to prohibit any discrimination and violation of minority voting rights through drawing of district lines. “While protecting minority voting rights, the standards would prohibit drawing district lines to favor or disfavor any incumbent or political party, (Collins center for public policy 2011). With these amendments, the redistricting is supposed to ensure there is a natural competitiveness in the districts when it comes to voting as well as other legislative matters.
The main reason for having redistricting is changes in population. This is the main reason it happens every ten years after a census has been conducted. “The federal courts require that every district contain approximately the same number of voters, so shifts in population require that U.S. House seats be reapportioned between the states,” (Amy 2006). When the population increases, some things will definitely change. “With an increase in the population comes an increased need for social services. The redrawing of the Florida map affects the funding the district gains based upon the number of residents living there,” (Arias 2012). With an increased population, there is a higher demand for social services, where more is needed to serve the increased population. Therefore, a redistricting is useful in ensuring all the people are represented fully in the government, both state and federal. With a population increase in Florida, there will be need for a change in the funding by the government. Therefore, to ensure representation of all people equally, redistricting comes in handy.
In a practical illustration, the population of Florida in 2000 was 15,982,378 people. It shot up to 18,801,310 people in 2010, representing an increase of 17.6 %, meaning the state government will have to cater for this increase (U.S. Census Bureau: State and CountyQuick Facts). As population increases, people move from place to place, hence distribution of this population cannot be even. Therefore, it is important to draw district lines to consider representing the all residents equally. This can be done through drawing of district lines that seek to make the districts as equal as possible in terms of population so that funding can be dealt with effectively. When a state losses or gain seats, depending on the population, it is necessary that the state redraw its district lines in order to accommodate the new seats (Grofman 89).
With redrawing of the boundaries, the state can be able to ensure that all the districts are relatively equal, without ant having a very large population while some have very low population. This way, the state will be in a position to distribute its resources to the residents with a lot of ease since they know the amount of funds each district will need. This way, there is a representation of all the people since none of the district that can be favored over the other as long as the districts are well redrawn. Moreover, during the redrawing this can be corrected. During distribution of services, it will be easier to know distracts that require more of the services according to their population. For instance, then a district’s population increases, the district will need to have more police officer to ensure the whole population in the area is served. Other social services must be provided such as health clinics and hospitals as well as more personnel for fire department. “For example, the number of fireman, hospitals and even police officers, must increase if redistricting has constructed districts with larger populations than before,” (Arias 2012).
Currently, considering the population of Florida has greatly increased over the last decade, meaning that there will probably be new seats for the state. This will mean the need for redrawing the district lines to cater for the new districts that might be created. more so, for all these people, there will be need to improve the size of funds that goes to funding social services such as having more police in the newly redrawn district, as well as other provisions such as schools, hospitals and even other services provided funded by governments. Redistricting leads to adequate provision of the social services that a district needs since they are all relatively equal, hence there is no much difference in terms of amounts needed for each district. This makes it easier to distribute the social services without complications of having to decide on different
The increase in population in the Florida states also means that they will need to have more representation in the government, both federal and at state level including legislature districts (U.S. Census Bureau: State and CountyQuick Facts). Therefore, equal representation of all people is yet another advantage of redistricting. This helps in avoiding one person representing many people at one time than it is deemed necessary. With one district having so many people under one representation, not all issues are likely to be represented. Therefore, having an additional district with fewer people means more representation. During the redistricting, the population of a district will be affected in a significant way where some districts will reduce in terms of population while others might increase. To the government, the state shall be fully represented. Considering leaders are supposed to be representing people other than the land size of their districts, having redistricting ensures an equal representation of all people in the federal and states government.
Redistricting of district lines after every census provides a good basis ensuring representation of all the residents in a state in the government, both federal and state governments. However, for a long time this has been used as a political tool for those in power, especially the ruling party for manipulating voting in order for the incumbents to retain their seats while the parties gather majority of the seats through ensuring the boundary lines contribute to a waste of voters for the other party. This dirty game does not allow the rightful winner to be elected. Therefore, the 5th and 6th amendments come in handy to protect this issue through prohibiting gerrymandering. The amendments will need to include factors that should be considered during redistricting to so that the parties drawing the lines can follow the stipulated rules and make sure redistricting is based on population as it is supposed to be. Currently, the Florida House has rejected redistricting lines, which were sent back for redrawing that are now in the house for approval, (Klas, 2012).
Work cited
Amy J. Douglas. How Proportional Representation Would Finally Solve Our Redistricting and Gerrymandering Problems. mtholyoke.edu, 2006. Web. March 29, 2012.
Collins center for public policy. Amendments 5 and 6: Changes in Redistricting Process. collinscenter.org, 2011. Web. March 29, 2012.
Galderisi F. Peter. Redistricting in the new millennium. Lexington, KY: Lexington Books, 2005. Print.
Grofman Bernard. Race and Redistricting in the 1990’s. Florida: Algora Publishing, 2003.Print.
Hebert J. Gerald. The realist’s guide to redistricting: avoiding the legal pitfalls. Florida: American Bar Association, 2010. Print.
Klas E. Mary. Florida House ready to approve Senate’s revised redistricting map. tampabay.com, March 27, 2012. Web. March 30, 2012.
The Florida senate. The Numbers. flsenate.gov, 2012. Web. March 29, 2012.
U.S. Census Bureau. State and County Quick Facts. 2012. Web.19 Mar. 2012
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