JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville could see yet another change to its district maps ahead of the March Unitary Election.
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The city is asking a federal appellate court to make the change before the end of next week.
The city wants to see its remedial map put back in place.
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That’s the map that was drawn after city council’s first map was struck down by a federal judge for packing Black voters into four districts.
If the city succeeds, it would be the fourth map change this year.
Originally, Duval Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan told the court it needed a map in place by December 16th to be able to prepare for the March Election. In the new court filing Hogan asks for the map to be changed by January 6th at the latest.
Read: Judge rejects city of Jacksonville’s redistricting map
That’s only three days before candidate qualifying begins.
UNF political science professor Dr. Michael Binder explained why Hogan is likely able to keep pushing the goalpost back.
“If you switch out and say, okay we’re gonna go back to the old city council map, you’ve got all of those files, all of those lines, all of those addresses. All of that stuff should be ready to go. Just hit a button and you’re running,” said Binder.
In the 20-page filing, the city’s attorneys argued the Black voting age population in the four districts at issue in the city’s map is nearly identical to the map imposed by the courts.
A similar argument was made by City Council President Terrance Freeman (R-Group 1 At-Large) last week.
“It came down to a one percent difference,” said Freeman on December 23rd.
City attorneys also argued the city’s map keeps incumbents in their current districts, making qualifying less complicated for those candidates.
Watch: No decision made on redistricting maps
But a total of 48 candidates running for city council seats could be impacted by a map swap this late in the game.
Binder said that could cause a lot of last-minute turmoil.
“Candidates that maybe live in a district now and are going to be moved potentially into a different district, they need to think about not only do I want to move to run in my old district? Do I want to move to run in a different district? How do I want to handle that and where am I gathering all these signatures from? There’s a lot of things that go onto the candidate’s plate,” said Binder.
Action News Jax reached out to plaintiffs in the case for comment on this story, but they were unable to comment before our deadline.
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We’ll stay on this story to ensure you know what map is in place for the March Election.
