- April 18, 2024
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Dear Editor:
“Who are you running against?”
It’s one of the top questions I get asked by voters as a candidate for Congress after I ask them to sign a petition to qualify my name for the ballot. My response is “I don’t know” followed by a technical — and very boring — explanation of the process, which includes mentioning the U.S. Census, COVID and politics that ends with “waiting on the state government to approve new district lines. We should know by June.”
Unfortunately, some people don’t like that answer. Admittedly, I don’t like that answer either. The current hangup involves the governor, courts and the issue of racial gerrymandering. From my view, the issue is regarding minority representation versus constitutionality of gerrymandering. One set of proposed district lines could result in racial minorities across Florida having a disproportionately lower representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Meanwhile, the other side of the issue is making district lines make sense by having districts encompass communities with geographical cohesion.
One example is a proposed district which would stretch about 200 miles between Jacksonville and Tallahassee. The map submitted by the state house divides Ormond Beach into two different congressional districts. It’s not reasonable to divide a city into multiple congressional districts.
The purpose is to have Florida elect representatives that are closer aligned with the backgrounds of the residents as a whole, leaving one side or the other feeling like they’ve been wronged. While there is no perfect solution, one idea which would help alleviate both ills is using something called Multi-Member Districts. This allows districts to be much larger and also elect more representative candidates from that area. Gerrymandering can be lessened by having larger sized districts and electing more than one candidate from that district. Maybe 14 Multi-Member Districts, each electing two members to the U.S. House of Representatives is the way.
Joe Hannoush
Ormond Beach
Editor's note: Joe Hannoush is running for U.S. House of Representatives District 6.
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