Miami residents will vote on a new electoral map after city authorities reached an agreement with voting advocates in the context of a case that extended over a year.
The agreement comes after a judge called the map "racially gerrymandered" and "unconstitutional," according to local outlet WLRN, and will also have the city pay for advocates' legal bills, amounting to $1.5 million.
Authorities will now work with local advocacy groups to create a new map that complies with the 14th Amendment to the U.S. constitution. Voters will also be able to decide on a limitation to future redistricting, as well as the creation of a "Citizens' Redistricting Committee" for Miami.
The case began in late 2022 when a series of advocacy groups sued Miami for gerrymandering, the manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the purpose of creating an advantage for a party.
Concretely, they said that commissioners drew the boundaries based on race, having one Black district, one White district and three Latino ones.
The new map includes a series of changing, among them uniting Coconut Grove again. Overtown, a historically Black neighborhood, will now be entirely into District 1. Before, it was split between Districts 1 and 5.
"Today's agreement shows that when we stand together as a community, we can overcome anyone who tries to ignore our voices," Carolyn Donaldson, executive board member of the South Dade branch of the NAACP, said in a written statement.
"The map provided by today's agreement will help our advocacy for communities in Coconut Grove and across Miami, and particularly its Black residents," she added.
If approved, the new map will be implemented in the November 2025. The voting also bans mapmaking that benefits incumbent commissioners and candidates.
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