Last month, local elections officials were sounding the alarm that new congressional maps would cost counties money and staff time.
Those concerns are now coming true. On Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a controversial new congressional map into law that gives Republicans an advantage in nearly all the state’s seats.
Many counties in the state remain in their previous districts under the new map.
But for those in the areas that were significantly redrawn — around Orlando, Tampa and Miami — those changes will affect who voters see on their ballots and could change where they vote in person on election day.
New costs
In Orange County, Elections Supervisor Karen Castor Dentel is expecting the changes will cost her office nearly half a million dollars in extra spending.
“It wasn't really part of our budget, and we have estimated that it will cost about $400,000 for the whole process between hiring a consulting firm to help us with the [geographic information system] maps, and then printing and mailing of the new voter information cards,” said Castor Dentel. “So that's a really big cost.”
Her office has a roughly $21 million budget for this year’s midterm elections. While a 2% increase in costs might sound small, she said, it could mean cuts to other election programs.
“We may have to make some different decisions about how we spend the money, and we may have to go to the county commission and ask for an additional supplement to afford it,” she explained.
A weight on staff
Supervisors of elections are responsible for interpreting, administrating and complying with the new congressional map.
For election staff who already dedicate time to educating voters and countering misinformation, a new map will mean more questions and more opportunities for confusion and frustration, Osceola County Supervisor of Elections Mary Jane Arrington said.
“I think a lot of times people think redistricting is just taking a Sharpie and drawing some lines on a map, right? But we deal with people,” said Arrington. “I mean, we're talking about real people that have to be moved to their new location or to a different location, and so that is time consuming, staff-wise. And again, we didn't plan on that. We're already busy with verifying candidate petitions and getting ready for the primary election.”
And it’s already a busy part of election season for staffers.
“We're trying to get ready for the midterm elections anyway,” Castor Dentel explained. “So we're already on high alert, and we already have our staff working long hours, and we're already hiring seasonal staff just to get all of those different logistics in place for Election Day. And this is just added on top of that. It's confusing, and we do have to rework our workflow.”
Litigation limbo
This week, three groups filed lawsuits alleging that the new map violates the Fair Districts Amendments of the state constitution. All are asking courts to block the new map and reinstate the previous one before the midterm elections.
That’s making it difficult for staff to decide how to proceed, Arrington said.
“What do we do here?” said Arrington. “We don't know, because of the challenges that have been filed, what the outcome is going to be.”
The new map ignores the state’s constitutional protections for minority voting districts and its ban on partisan gerrymandering, representatives from the Governor’s Office testified in committee hearings last week.
During the Legislature’s special session on redistricting last Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Louisiana v. Callais. The ruling significantly weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that protected “majority-minority” voting districts in federal, state and local elective office.
The Governor’s Office is arguing that the ruling invalidates all of the protections in the Fair Districts Amendments, not just those for minority districts, because all of the protections must be taken, or stricken, as one. DeSantis is confident the map will withstand the court challenges.
If courts uphold the new map, staff will have fewer than 60 days to do what took months the last time the state adopted a new map in 2022, Arrington said.
