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CS/SJR 100 — Joint Resolution of Apportionment
by Reapportionment Committee and Senator Rodrigues
This summary is provided for information only and does not represent the opinion of any Senator, Senate Officer, or Senate Office.
Prepared by: Reapportionment Committee (RE)
This Joint Resolution apportions the state into 120 state representative districts (plan H000H8013) and 40 state senate districts (plan S027S8058) as required by state and federal law.
The ideal population for each state house district is 179,485, and the ideal population for each state senate district is 538,455. Florida’s total population (and therefore the ideal populations for house and senate districts) increased by 14.6 percent between the 2010 Census and the 2020 Census. Population growth was not even across the state.
Under state and federal law, it is a duty of the Legislature to draw new state representative and senate districts. In November 2010, voters amended the State Constitution and set standards for the Legislature to follow in legislative districting. Article III, s. 21(a), State Constitution provides:
- Districts cannot be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.
- Districts cannot be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process; or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice.
- Districts must be contiguous.
Subsection (b) provides, unless it would conflict with federal law or the standards described in subsection (a):
- Districts must be as nearly equal in population as practicable.
- Districts must be compact.
- Districts must, where feasible, follow existing political and geographical boundaries.
Subsection (c) provides that the order in which the standards within subsections (a) and (b) of Section 21 are set forth shall not be read to establish any priority of one standard over the other within that subsection.
The Legislature drew new districts to comply with state and federal law. The new state house and state senate plans preserve the opportunities existing in the benchmark maps for racial and language minorities to participate in the political process and elect candidates of their choice.
All 120 state House districts and 40 state Senate districts consist of contiguous territory and comply with the State Constitution’s co-equal tier two requirements of districts being nearly equal in population as is practicable, compact, and utilizing existing political and geographical boundaries where feasible.
As provided in Art. X, s. 8(a), State Constitution, the Joint Resolution officially adopts the United States Decennial Census of 2020 as the official census of the state for the purposes of legislative redistricting.
The Joint Resolution also provided definitions regarding Census geography and the electronic versions of districts, designates the process for territory that is not specified for inclusion in any district or is noncontiguous, designates electronic maps as the authoritative representation of the state's legislative districts, and provides severability in the event that any provision of the Joint Resolution is invalidated.
The districts prescribed in this Joint Resolution shall apply to the qualification, nomination, and election of members of the Florida Legislature in the primary and general elections of 2022 and thereafter.
Vote: Senate 37-0; House 77-39