Melony Bell, Polk County’s Supervisor of Elections, spent six years in the Florida Legislature.
Lawmakers, many of them her former colleagues, just created a new burden for Bell’s office.
The Legislature adopted new congressional maps in its special session that ended May 1. The maps, presented by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office, are expected to yield four more Republican seats in the U.S. House, increasing the party’s advantage over Democrats to 24 to 4.
The unusual, mid-decade redistricting significantly alters congressional districts in Polk County. District 15, which now includes western Polk, including about half of Lakeland, will vanish from the county. Likewise, District 11, now covering northern Polk, will also depart.
District 18, which encompasses most of eastern Polk County, including a large section of Lakeland, will expand to contain all but about 26,000 of the county’s voters. And District 16 changes shape to take in a section of southwest Polk.
District 9, which previously only included a small sliver of eastern Polk County in the Poinciana area, was redrawn. It no longer includes that sliver but includes a larger portion of southeast Polk.
Bell said her office had not yet determined exactly how many Polk voters will change congressional districts, but it will be a large percentage.
Shortly after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation into law May 4, several groups filed lawsuits, alleging that the redistricting was a partisan exercise intended to dilute Democratic representation. The suits, combined into one, had their first hearings May 15 but expected to advance to the Florida Supreme Court.
The Polk Supervisor’s Office cannot delay until the legal challenges are resolved, Bell said.
“There’s no way we could sit around like, ‘Well, we’ll wait until we hear from a court ruling,” Bell said. “There’s no way. We have to follow the law as it is written now and then, if something does come up between now and then, then we’ll do our best to go back to the old way.”
Working on new voter maps
Bell’s office has received the new map of congressional districts from the state, she said. The office has a new employee, a recent graduate of Florida Polytechnic University, with a specialty in Geographic Information System mapping, Bell said. The employee had started designing new voter maps as of May 12.
After the staff completes the processing of assigning voters into the revised congressional districts, the office will mail voter identification cards informing residents of their designated districts. That action is required by federal law, Bell said.
If a court were to block implementation of the new district map, the Supervisor’s Office would turn around and mail cards with voters in their original districts.
“We would up to the 12th hour,” Bell said. “We would try to get them out if we can because we’re required by law to do it.”
The process of revising voter maps will drive up costs for Florida’s county election offices. The money will come of the regular budget for the Polk office, Bell said. That likely means that she will return less unspent money than expected to Polk County.
District 18, which covers most of Polk County under the new map, is now represented by Rep. Scott Franklin, R-Lakeland. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, represents District 9. Both are running for reelection.
The incumbent in District 16, Rep. Vern Buchanon, R-Longboat Key, is not seeking another term.
“The best scenario would be for our office to move on and we get everything done and we prepare for the election,” Bell said. “Now, if we get a ruling that they’ve reversed it, then we’ll go back to square one again.”
Information in Spanish causes backlash
Bell’s office had just mailed newly designed voter information cards in April. Those cards included text in Spanish, and the office has since been “bombarded” with phone calls and emails complaining about the use of the second language, Bell said.
The office issued a Facebook post on May 1.
“The addition of Spanish language text is required under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” the post said. “This federal law mandates that certain jurisdictions, including Polk County, provide election-related materials in multiple languages when specific population thresholds are met. English is still available on the card in blue and black.”
Polk is one of at least 10 Florida counties required to include Spanish translations, based on their demographic makeup. Bell said she is considering how her office might add a reference to the federal law on the cards.
“Because, I’m telling you, my staff has really taken the brunt of that with all these phone calls that have come in that people don’t agree that we should have Spanish on them,” she said.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk supervisor says new voter maps can’t wait on outcome of lawsuit
Reporting by Gary White, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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