Opinion ID: 1756463
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: effectiveness of proposed plan

Text: In evaluating the effectiveness of districting plans in fostering the opportunity of minorities to elect representatives of their choice, courts have recognized that minority concentrations substantially above 50% total population (super-majorities) are often required because minority populations generally have more persons below voting age than do white populations. Also, voter registration and turnout among minorities oftentimes is decreased because of the lingering effects of past discriminatory practices that may have rendered registration and voting unduly burdensome or futile. See Kimball Brace et al., Minority Voting Equality: The 65 Percent Rule in Theory and Practice, 10 Law & Pol'y 43 (1988). Taking these factors into account, the proposed plan is seriously flawed. While the plan for the House contains 13 black majority districts based on total population, only 11 of these contain black majority voting-age populations, and only 9 contain a majority of registered black voters. [27] As to the Senate, only 1 district contains a majority of registered black voters. Even under the best-case scenario under the proposed plan, i.e., if blacks and Hispanics elected representatives of their choice in each of the proposed districts wherein they constituted a clear or near majority based on total population (if blacks elected 13 representatives to the House and 3 senators, and Hispanics elected 9 representatives to the House and 3 senators), their representatives would still comprise only a fraction of the total these minorities make up of Florida's population. This is hardly a meaningful improvement over the existing apportionment plan.