Legislature Will Alter Corrine Brown's and Dan Webster's CDs, Not Other 25 Seats

After a ruling last week which found the congressional seats currently held by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., violated the Fair District amendments passed in 2010, the leaders of the Florida Legislature said they will redraw those two districts but will not touch the other 25. They also asked the judge if this impacted the 2014 elections which are already under way.

We respect the deliberative and thorough manner in which Judge Lewis approached the trial on the Florida congressional map, Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Destin, and House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, said in a joint statement on Tuesday. While the court directed that Congressional Districts 5 and 10 be redrawn, the court rejected the plaintiffs challenge to eight other districts, thereby upholding 25 of 27 congressional districts statewide and leaving intact the vast majority of the actions taken by the Legislature.

The Legislature does not presently intend to initiate an appeal of the court's decision and will redraw the boundaries of Congressional Districts 5 and 10, Gaetz and Weatherford added. Today, we have asked Judge Lewis to clarify, as a legal and practical matter, that his decision does not affect the administration of the 2014 election. According to federal law, over 63,000 Florida military and overseas voters are already casting absentee ballots based on the current congressional map. Next week, hundreds of thousands of printed absentee ballots will be mailed to in-state voters. Any attempt to change the districts at this late stage of the 2014 elections process would cause chaos and confusion and would threaten the rights of our deployed military voters. It has been the practice in other states and in Florida to remedy maps at a future election so as not to disrupt and disenfranchise voters. We believe such action is appropriate and is in the best interest of Florida, and particularly our deployed military servicemen and servicewomen, who are casting their votes now.