TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — After years of litigation and bitter opposition from the Republican-led Legislature, the coalition of voter advocacy groups that brought the state its redistricting standards have called a truce.
FairDistricts Now, and its consortium of voting advocates, will not oppose the House and Senate redistricting maps that were passed by the Florida Legislature two weeks ago, setting the stage for the plans to serve as the political boundaries for the 120-member House and 40-member Senate for the next decade.
“Something happened yesterday that has not ever happened before,’’ said Ellen Freidin, chief executive officer of FairDistricts Now, a nonpartisan organization that worked to pass the 2010 constitutional amendment to impose new redistricting standards in Florida. “The Legislature’s proposed state House and Senate redistricting maps were sent to the Florida Supreme Court for their automatic facial review and no one challenged them.”
