TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s local election supervisors have been instructed to retain their existing congressional district maps while three lawsuits challenge the legality of the new boundaries created by Gov. Ron DeSantis for the 2026 midterm elections. The advisory, issued by a state official last Monday, comes as the state prepares for an aggressive timeline to implement the new districts, which were signed into law earlier that day during a special legislative session.
Legal Challenges and Contingency Planning
The instruction to preserve the previous congressional map, which was in place for the 2022 and 2024 elections, serves as a contingency measure amid intense legal scrutiny. Civil rights groups filed three lawsuits within hours of the bill's signing, contesting the new map as an illegal gerrymander that violates Florida’s Fair District laws. These laws, approved by voters in 2010, prohibit political gerrymandering and the dilution of minority voting power.
Ashley Davis, general counsel for the Department of State, wrote in an email to election officials that they should keep the old maps "in case the need to implement it becomes necessary." The advisory did not explicitly cite the pending litigation but suggested that legal challenges could potentially stall the implementation of the new map before the primary elections scheduled for Aug. 18, as noted by Florida Lawmakers Approve Trump.
Impact on Republican Representation
DeSantis’s new statewide map impacts 21 of the state’s 28 congressional districts, with significant changes in Central Florida, the Tampa Bay area, and South Florida. The redistricting effort, which was conducted by the governor’s staff and outside counsel, is projected to give Florida Republicans a potential 24-to-four majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, up from the current 20-to-eight majority based on the 2022 map.
While DeSantis initially cited rapid population growth as the rationale for the mid-decade redistricting, he and Republican Party officials later acknowledged that political performance was a consideration, noting that the move aligned with requests from President Donald Trump for Republican-led states to redraw districts to maintain power, as reported by Univision.
Operational Burdens on Local Counties
Election supervisors in affected regions face a tedious and costly process of redrawing local maps and notifying voters of new precinct assignments. Mark Earley, supervisor of elections for Leon County, described the task as requiring extensive double-checking to ensure accuracy. Orange and Osceola Counties are among those most heavily impacted, with thousands of residents reassigned to new districts.
In Orange County, approximately 300,000 of the 820,000 voters are being redistricted, primarily affecting congressional districts 8, 9, and 10. Karen Castor Dentel, Orange County’s supervisor of elections, estimated the cost of sending new voter cards at $300,000. She expressed concern over the timing, noting that the office must divert staff from other critical tasks like poll worker training to handle the redistricting data.
Osceola County Supervisor of Elections Mary Jane Arrington noted that an estimated 35,000 voters are being reassigned to Congressional District 18. With ballots required to be mailed by July 4, Arrington highlighted the logistical pressure of designing and printing new ballots while managing voter notifications for changed polling locations.
