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 The decision to reconvene the legislature, which is out of
session, was in response to a ruling on Friday by Circuit Court
Judge Terry Lewis that required lawmakers to redraw the maps by Aug.
15.
Three weeks ago, Lewis ruled that two of the state's 27
congressional districts must be revised because Republican leaders
improperly conspired to rig the boundaries to protect the party's
majority in Washington.
After that ruling, Florida's legislative leaders asked that changes
be delayed until after the 2014 elections.
"We continue to maintain our strong objection to any attempt to
disrupt the current election process," Republican House Speaker Will
Weatherford wrote to all members on Sunday.
"Florida's supervisors of elections have raised serious concerns
over changing the elections process at this late date."
Absentee ballots have already been mailed for the Aug. 26 primaries.
Under the proposed special session schedule, most members of the
House and Senate would return on Aug. 7 then leave immediately
leave. Only members of the redistricting committees would work
through the weekend.
The full legislature would then return on Aug. 13 to debate and pass
the new maps in time to meet Lewis' deadline.
The focus will be on the congressional districts represented by
Corrine Brown, a Democrat in a serpentine district stretching from
Jacksonville in north Florida to Orlando in the central state, and
Daniel Webster, an Orlando-area Republican.
Lewis ruled that the legislature packed Brown's district with black
voters, overwhelmingly Democrats, to help the two-decade incumbent
win re-election. The result left adjoining districts, including
Webster's, heavily white and Republican.
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In a July 10 ruling, Lewis found the result "made a mockery" of a
state constitutional amendment, approved by voters in 2010,
prohibiting legislators from protecting incumbents.
Although Democrats outnumber Republican voters in Florida, the
congressional map produced by the legislature resulted in the
election of a congressional delegation with 17 Republicans and 10
Democrats.
Lewis scheduled another hearing on Aug. 20 to consider rescheduling
the affected elections.
The League of Women Voters of Florida, which successfully sued the
state for favoring incumbents in its 2012 congressional
redistricting plan, has argued that it is still possible to fix the
boundaries before the election.
(Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Curtis Skinner and Paul
Tait)
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