Vote YES on Florida Amendments 5 and 6
By Julia Dawson
This year, out of all the candidates and issues on the ballot, I am most passionate about voting YES on Amendments 5 & 6 on Election Day. These two amendments will make a more profound change in Florida politics than any other vote you can cast next Tuesday, November 2nd. After you vote on the state and local candidates and judges, keep going — you’ll see them in the amendment section of the ballot (Punch 206 & 208).
Every 10 years after the census is completed, legislators in Tallahassee draw new district lines. This is required because people move around and each district that elects a legislator to go to Washington or Tallahassee is supposed to have about the same population.
But Florida’s Constitution currently has no rules to prevent Tallahassee legislators from misusing their power when they draw new district lines. For decades politicians have sliced and diced districts to keep themselves in office by literally drawing their district lines around the voters most likely to reelect them. Both Democrats and Republicans are guilty, and it’s the residents of Florida who pay the price with stale, politics-as-usual representation. It’s time politicians stopped manipulating our vote and started earning our vote!
Enthusiastic new candidates with a commitment to public service and fresh ideas don’t stand a chance after entrenched, self-serving, fat-cat politicians rig their districts to guarantee their perpetual reelection. The result? In the last 6 years out of the 420 elections for State House and Senate in Florida only 3 incumbents have lost to a new candidate. Incumbents and challengers should compete on a more level playing field (and may the best candidate win!) not in a district rigged by the incumbent.
If we vote YES and pass Amendments 5 and 6 next Tuesday, we will put rules in the Florida Constitution that legislators must follow: districts can’t favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party, shall not be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice (putting protection for racial and language minority voting rights in the Florida Constitution for the first time and permanently enshrining protections that are greater than those contained in state or federal law today), shall be compact, consist of contiguous territory (like the 48 states), be as equal in population as feasible, and where feasible must make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries (keeping communities together). Amendment 5 applies these rules to state legislative districts, and Amendment 6 applies the exact same rules to congressional districts.
One point seven million voters across Florida individually signed petitions in a grassroots citizen’s effort to put Amendments 5 & 6, the Fair Districts Amendments, on the ballot. The amendments are non-partisan and supported by Democracia Ahora, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Florida League of Cities, the ACLU, Florida Black Legislative Caucus, Florida Association of School Boards, just to name a few, as well as prominent members of both the Republican and Democratic parties.
Who is opposed to Amendments 5 & 6? On the other side of the 1.7 million Florida voters who put the Amendments on the ballot are political incumbents who are desperate to hold on to their power by perpetually staying in office and who want to once again draw their gerrymandered district lines to insure their reelection. Instead of the more than 60 organizations supporting Amendments 5 & 6, the only organizations listed as opposing the Amendments are Associated Industries of Florida and Florida Chamber of Commerce. Instead of the clean sweep of Florida’s major newspapers that have all strongly urged Floridians to vote YES on the Fair Districts Amendments (a total of 22 newspapers), no major Florida newspaper has opposed the Amendments. And instead of the 3,712 donors across Florida who have invested in Fair Districts, just 9 donors have funded the opposition (giving a total of $1.8 million with $25,000 the smallest donation). In Florida, the system used to redraw our district lines every 10 years is clearly broken. Let’s end the backroom deals and put power back in the hands of the voters.
DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, and INDEPENDENTS should all vote YES on Amendments 5 and 6. When you vote Punch 206 and 208!
For more information about these amendments visit www.fairdistrictsflorida.org
Julia Dawson is a native Miamian who has been on the board of ACLU Miami for more than 25 years. She is a retired attorney who spends her time as a community activist on feminist, LGBT, racial and other social justice i
