Florida’s Select House Committee on Congressional Redistricting held its first meeting on Dec. 4 for what chairman Rep. Mike Redondo called a “listening and learning session” about ”the building blocks of redistricting.”

“We’re going to be focusing on an educational and introductory scope, and therefore, we’re going to be highly focused on a few key elements of this process,” Redondo said to the 10 other committee members and the packed room of citizens.

Most of the roughly 25-minute meeting consisted of a presentation by the State House’s outside legal counsel, Andy Bardos, which introduced some of the basic legal standards of redistricting.

Any redistricting would be based on the 2020 census, which gave Florida 28 seats in the House of Representatives based on a population of 21.5 million, 17.3 million of whom were found to be of voting age.

That total included everyone living in the state, whether or not they were a Florida resident or a U.S. citizen. It also provided geographical information on where people lived within a metro area or county.

“We don’t simply put a line wherever we want to on a map, because we wouldn’t know exactly how many people live within the district that we’ve drawn,” Bardos said. ”The district has to be composed of these building blocks that the Census gives us, and then we can aggregate the data to determine how many people live within each district.”

Every district must be equal in population, and Florida’s 2022 map established 27 of its 28 districts with 769,221 people. The one outlier had 769,220.

All districts are also required to be in one continuous piece and cannot be made of two pieces simply touching at a point.

Florida’s 14th Congressional District, which includes parts of Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties around Tampa Bay, is not continuously connected by land. However, Bardos explained that the Florida Supreme Court has held the position that the presence of a body of water within a district does not violate the contiguity requirement.

The committee still awaits the ruling of a U.S. Supreme Court case in which Louisiana is spearheading an argument to strike down the practice of using race to draw district maps on the national level.

A recent ruling by the state supreme court found the Florida Constitution prohibited lawmakers from using race as a predominant factor in drawing district lines for its state legislature.

“It raises new and important questions about the interplay of redistricting requirements in federal and state law,” Redondo said.

New district maps go before both chambers of the state legislature before being signed into law or vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, like any other bill.

But Redondo did not guarantee a new map would be drawn.

“We may ultimately decide to propose a new congressional map based on our expiration, or we may not. But if we do, we will do so in a timely manner,” he said.

Midterm elections are set for November 2026, and the qualifying period for candidates seeking federal offices occurs in April. Redondo cited these deadlines and said it would be irresponsible to wait until the regular legislative session next year.

“It would also be irresponsible to any who are called to civil service, and most importantly, it would be irresponsible to the citizens of Florida,” he said.

Redondo also attempted to assure those present that no outside influences would play a part in any district map redrawing. Anyone who submitted a new map would have to disclose which institutions or individuals helped create it.

“Our constitutional standards prohibit maps and districts from being drawn with an intent to favor or disfavor any political party or incumbent,” he said. ”You should not be naive to the fact that external entities and individuals might seek to influence this process in a way that may not comply with the Florida Constitution.”

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Dec. 10.