Jeb's Sect. of State caught trying to kill initiative on redistricting

[wakeme2008]

First from the article today

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/26/State/Length_kills_ballot_a.shtml

Length kills ballot appeal

An earlier state approval is rescinded because the redistricting petition has more words than the law allows.

JONI JAMES
Published August 26, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - A citizen initiative aimed at stripping lawmakers of the power to draw political districts was rescinded by Florida's top elections official Thursday because it has too many words.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood acknowledged her staff erred when it approved the petition in March. But that does not change the fact that the measure is six words too long, she wrote in a letter to the measure's backers.

"Our error does not cure their defect," said Hood press secretary Jenny Nash

..cut...

611,009 signatures needed by a Feb. 1 deadline for the November 2006 ballot.

The flawed measure already was signed by more than 200,000 people,

..full article at link....

This shows another devious action by Jeb and friends. Jeb is FOR redistricting in CA but against it in Florida... I wonder why...

From the article " After the flaw was disclosed Tuesday by the St. Petersburg Times" IMHO Hood knew the error had been made, but did not plan to kill it until Jan 2006 when it would have been too late for it to be corrected. IMHO we got lucky the St. Pete Times pointed this out NOW so that it could be corrected in time.

[madfloridian]

1. Kick for importance.

Glenda would have played this until the end. Glad they outed her on this...

[wakeme2008]

4. And I believe that was her real game plan

but the St. Pete Times brought out the problem early enough to fix.

[TheFarseer]

2. Can't we just draw the damn boundaries

by population, by county and not allow any more redistricting unless there are population shifts dramatic enough to transfer an entire county to a different district? Gerrymandering pisses me off SO MUCH! My favorite was when a bunch of dems got redistricted out of their seats in Texas vs I don't think any republicans. Yeah, that wasn't politically motivated!!!!

[wakeme2008]

3. the sad part is they use computers to draw these

districts so Repugs do not lose, BUT those same computers COULD draw nice compact districts that put as many people with the same needs into one district. IE some districts now span 3-5 counties and all the people in that district do not have the same needs.