ORLANDO, Fla. — A lawsuit could decide who is on your ballot and the clock is ticking as Election Day draws nearer.
Two Central Florida voters are part of a lawsuit to block the new congressional map.
The 70-page lawsuit was filed just hours after the Governor signed the map into law on Monday. The suit claims the 2026 map is politically motivated.
“People can expect that they may or may not be in a new congressional district depending on where they live,” Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor, said.
A group of voters want the courts to block the map, saying it was drawn to intentionally favor the GOP, giving Republicans as many as 24 of Florida’s 28 congressional seats.
The lawsuit claims the 2026 map ‘packs and cracks’ Democratic voters in the Orlando area.
The suit claims it’s a violation of Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment.
“The Fair District Amendment says that when you go to draw the district lines. You can’t do so with the intent of favoring or disfavoring a political party or an incumbent,” Jewett said.
So it’s now up to the courts to decide if this map is constitutional. But that decision could take months or even years.
Meantime, we’re just weeks away from the candidates’ qualifying deadline for the 2026 election cycle. So, in the meantime, the big question is how voters will navigate the uncertainty.
“For now, it’s a mess. And so if you’re thinking about running for Congress, I would say what you have to do is assume that this new map is the one that you file under,” Jewett said. “I mean, the legislature has passed a new map. The governor signed it. Until the courts say differently, that’s the map.”
There is some historical precedent for this. Back in 2012, Florida’s Congressional map was tied up in a legal battle, but it was still used in the 2012 and 2014 elections. It wasn’t until 2015 that the courts ruled that map unconstitutional.
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