Lawsuit challenges Gadsden County's political district maps, local governments plan review
The political map of Gadsden County may about to be redrawn.
The county commission has scheduled a workshop for Jan. 8 to ensure that the authority to set the boundaries for commission and school board seats remains in Quincy, the county seat.
An intergovernmental meeting of commissioners, school board members and the public was recommended Dec. 19 by the county administrator, with a federal lawsuit coming a week later by the Gadsden County Republican Executive Committee and William B. Durham of Havana.
The plaintiffs seek to have the county redistrict the commission lines and school board districts or have the court draw a new map. They also seek costs and expenses, including attorney fees.
The suit, filed in Tallahassee, challenges the validity of the current county commission and school district maps that were drawn in 2003. Edward Dixon, the county administrator, had advised the board that there have been population changes since then that resulted in districts falling out of compliance with legal standards.
“To mitigate the risk of potential litigation and ensure that we retain control over the redistricting process, it is imperative that we act swiftly,” Dixon wrote in a memorandum to the board.
The legal standard to which Dixon refers is the one-person, one-vote rule that courts have read into the U.S. Constitution, according to the Gadsden REC and Durham.
In a brief filed Dec. 22 by their Tallahassee-based attorneys with the Shutts & Bowen law firm, they argued the 20-year-old maps do not take into account the population changes reflected in the 2010 and 2020 censuses.
Gadsden County divided into five single-member districts
The county’s roughly 43,000 residents are divided across five single-member districts. An equitable distribution of the population would be about 8,700, according to the complaint.
Durham lives in District 1, where there are 11,576 people, a deviation of 32% from the ideal, while districts 2 and 5 both have 7,000 residents — and presumably fewer voters.
“The 2003 Plan unlawfully dilutes the voting strength and political influence of those living in District 1 and inflates the voting strength and political influence of those living in all the other district in the county,” the attorneys told Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle in their filing.
A Gadsden County spokesperson declined comment on the suit, saying the commissioners would be reviewing the complaint.
What happens next
Hinkle will hold a hearing Jan. 4 to set a case scheduling order.
The hearing will be followed four days later by the intergovernmental workshop in the Gadsden County Commission chambers in Quincy, 4 p.m. Jan. 8.
That workshop will include alternative maps for consideration by the commissioners, school board members and the public.
James Call can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Gadsden County political maps now face lawsuit brought by local GOP
