Attorneys head to court Friday to spar over a suit that could affect next year’s elections in Jacksonville.
A group of Jacksonville voters and social justice advocacy groups contend that Jax’ new City Council and Duval School Board districts amount to racial gerrymandering. Council redrew the districts this year and Mayor Lenny Curry approved them.
The suit is aimed at getting the districts thrown out before the 2023 elections because, the allegation goes, the Council diminished Black residents’ voting power in violation of their constitutional rights by packing them into too few districts.
“What we’ve asked for is a new map and an opportunity for the City Council to redraw that map … in a way that is not racially gerrymandered and does comply with the law,” Jack Genberg, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said yesterday on WJCT News 89.9’s First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross.
The suit alleges the City Council packed Black residents into Council districts 7, 8, 9 and 10, leaving three other districts with disproportionately large white populations. The city contends race wasn’t a main factor in the redistricting, but rather that the city acted to preserve historic districts, honor geographic boundaries and comply with the Voting Rights Act.
Arguments in the case are set for 10 a.m. Friday at the federal courthouse Downtown; the next election is March 23rd. (Jacksonville Today)