FL GOP voting map thrown out by judge

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AFlorida state judge has thrown out the congressional map passed by the Republican legislature and pushed by Governor Ron DeSantis, ruling that it violated state law by drawing Black voters out of a north Florida district.

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Circuit Judge Layne Smith ruled Wednesday that the enacted map violates the state's constitutional amendments on redistricting because "it diminishes African Americans' ability to elect candidates of their choice" in Florida's 5th District. He called for the state to adopt a map that restores the district's previous shape, which would stretch from Jacksonville to Tallahassee and have a near majority-Black voting age population.

The originally adopted version of the map reduces Florida's 5th District to nearly a third of its original size, while dispersing about 370,000 Black voters among four other districts, according to evidence brought to the court by the map's challengers and voting rights groups.

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