Miami civic groups want to stop city from using redrawn voting map for fall election
A coalition of community groups have asked a federal judge to stop the city of Miami from using its redrawn voting map in the upcoming November election, when three of five commission seats will be decided.
The request is part of a lawsuit alleging the city approved an unconstitutional voting map in 2022, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and misinterpreting the Voting Rights Act while packing Black and Hispanic voters into certain districts and diluting those voters’ influence in adjacent districts.
On Friday, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and law firm Dechert LLP filed a motion to prevent the city from holding this year’s regular municipal elections under the 2022 map. The motion asks the judge to implement a different, court-approved map by Aug. 1 so it can be used for the Nov. 7 elections. There are elections this year in districts 1, 2 and 4, which include Allapattah, the Health District, Coconut Grove, Flagami and part of Little Havana.
The case will not affect the Feb. 27 special election to select a District 2 commissioner to serve until November.
In December, the groups accused the city of creating racially segregated districts in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Four individual residents, community groups for Coconut Grove, the South Dade and Miami-Dade branches of the NAACP, and Engage Miami filed the suit.
The organizations all advocated against the redrawn map, which commissioners approved in March 2022. In particular, resident groups advocated against splitting part of Coconut Grove across two districts.
Read more: Lawsuit accuses Miami of ‘racial gerrymandering’ in drawing new voting districts
The case scrutinizes the city’s approach to drawing a voting map along racial lines to increase the likelihood of certain districts electing commissioners of certain races or ethnicity. During the redistricting process, commissioners said they wanted to preserve the current makeup of the board — three Hispanic, one Black and one non-Hispanic white.
“Miamians deserve to have their voices heard in the November elections, but this map tramples on fair representation,” said Nicholas Warren, staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida. “Commissioners now have a responsibility to draw a map that protects Black and brown voters and complies with the Constitution and Voting Rights Act.”
The city and its lead redistricting consultant, former state lawmaker Miguel De Grandy, have defended the redistricting process. In December, De Grandy said the city followed a “well-recognized and judicially accepted traditional redistricting principle” that joined politically cohesive communities.
“The city opposes any injunction and has taken the position that the complaint should be dismissed,” City Attorney Victoria Méndez said on Friday.
Opponents have said that political cohesion was used as an argument to draw districts largely along racial lines.
Yanelis Valdes, an individual plaintiff and advocacy director at Engage Miami, said the city should discard its “racially gerrymandered map that slices through our communities.”
““This map is the result of a calculated approach to split neighborhoods and communities along racial lines to maintain and enhance racially segregated districts,” Valdes said, in a statement.
The lawsuit could affect the political landscape going into a critical election year. One incumbent commissioner, Manolo Reyes, has already filed to run for reelection in District 4. Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla has not filed for reelection in District 1, where perennial candidate Miguel Gabela filed to run on Thursday. Several of the 13 candidates in the District 2 special election have said they also plan to run for the seat this fall.
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 4:31 PM.
