Florida enacted new state legislative districts on March 3, 2022, when the Florida Supreme Court approved a proposal passed by both legislative chambers. The maps will take effect for Florida’s 2022 state legislative elections.
On Jan. 20, the Florida Senate passed a joint resolution including both state House and Senate maps in a 34-3 vote. The House approved the resolution on Feb. 2 in a 77-39 vote. Since the maps were passed as a joint resolution, they did not require Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) signature to become law. After the legislature approved the maps, they submitted them to Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), who then petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to review the maps on February 9.
After the legislature approved the maps, Senate President Wilton Simpson (R) said, “Thank you to this body for the professionalism we brought to the process this year with redistricting. We can and should be very proud of the work we’ve done here today and we’ll see if the courts are equally as proud.” State Rep. Geraldine Thompson (D) criticized the House map, saying “While we won’t show retrogression in terms of fewer minority seats, at the same time, unfortunately we won’t show progression — progress in terms of the participation of minority populations in this chamber.”
As of March 3, 38 states have adopted legislative district maps for both chambers, and one state has adopted maps that have not yet gone into effect. The state supreme court in one state has overturned previously enacted maps, and 10 states have not yet adopted new state legislative maps. As of March 3, 2012, 41 states had enacted legislative redistricting plans after the 2010 census.
Nationwide, states have completed legislative redistricting for1,622 of 1,972 state Senate seats (82.3%) and 3,785 of 5,411 state House seats (70.0%).
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