Broward Count – On Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 1:30 PM, Broward Citizens for Fair Districts will hold a press conference outside of the Broward County Governmental Center, 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301.
The reason for the press conference is to discuss the Broward County Commission’s December 13, 2011 approval of its redistricting map. The new map was divided into nine single member districts pursuant to the County Charter requirement that County districts be redrawn every ten years following the decennial census.
The Charter also requires that the populations of the districts are balanced to ensure that residents have equal representation on the County Commission. The newly created County map is unconstitutional because it violates the Federal Voting Rights Act.
Prior to the start of the redistricting process, the County Commission adopted the Fair Districting principles that had been convincingly approved by Florida voters in a 2010 election.
The County Commission held community workshops and established a specific protocol under which citizens were permitted to submit redistricting maps to be considered by the Commission. However, on December 13, 2011, the County Commission violated its own protocol and rejected all of the previously submitted and considered maps, including maps that the majority of the Commission previously accepted at its Public Hearing on November 8, 2011.
The approved map conspicuously reflected the political interests of most Commissioners.
The “12th hour” redistricting map approved by a majority of the Broward County Commission is unconstitutional because it violates the U.S. Constitution, specifically the Federal Voting Rights Act. The “12th hour” map reflects the County Commission’s purposeful intent to approve a redistricting map that dilutes constitutionally protected minority voting rights in several of the nine commission districts by removing proportional numbers of minority voters from districts, such as Districts 1 and District 7 and placing such minority voters in other districts where their vote is effectively rendered politically meaningless. The same map also reflects the County Commission’s purposeful and unlawful intent to “stack” a large number of the voting Black electorate, in the central Broward area, into a single Commission district, District 9, with the same intent to dilute the voting strength of a federally protected class of the electorate.
Under the “12th hour” map, the political voting strengths in Districts 1 and 7 were effectively “bleached” according to one Commissioner who complained that he could not win with so many Blacks in his district.
According to former Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Carlton Moore, “The approved map reflects the County Commission’s personal political interests and agendas for ensuring their incumbency and that of known political colleagues.”
Broward Citizens for Fair Districts, State Senator Christopher Smith, State Representative Perry Thurston, Pastor and Mayor Eric H. Jones, Jr. and the T.J. Reddick Bar Association, along with individuals belonging to the Broward Black Elected Officials organization demand that the Broward County Commission cease and desist from further actions required by Charter that will complete the final approval of the redistricting map.
The press conference will make clear that the coalition of concerned Broward County citizens will use every legal means available, including the imminent filing of a federal lawsuit to remedy the County Commission’s violation of state and federal laws.
