Reapportionment: As required by the U. S. Constitution, every 10 years a count is made of
every man, woman and child in the country by the Census Bureau. These population counts
are used to decide how many of the 435 congressional seats each state gets in the U. S. House
of Representatives. As a result of the 2010 Census, Florida gained 2 more seats for a total of
27. The largest congressional delegation is California with 53, Texas is second with 36, and
Florida and New York with 27 each are tied for the third and fourth. Those 27 congressional
seats, combined with our 2 U. S. Senate seats, equals 29 Electoral College votes for Florida.

Redistricting: It is the responsibility of each State Legislature to use the population counts
released by the Census Bureau (per Public Law 94-171) to create the actual congressional
districts that contain approximately an equal number of people. The legislature will also use
these PL 94-171 census counts to redraw the State Senate and State House into equal districts.

The Florida legislature will hold statewide public hearings in the summer and fall of 2011 and
begin their work on the Federal and State districts when the session starts on January 10, 2012.
Those new districts must be through all Governor, Supreme Court and Justice Department
reviews in time for federal and state candidate qualifying to begin on June 18th, 2012.

Here in Orange County, those same census population numbers will be used to create new
single member county and several city districts. This year Redistricting Advisory Committees
(RAC) will be appointed to begin working on the Orange County Commission, Orange County
School Board, City of Orlando, and if needed, City of Winter Garden and City of Ocoee districts
and should be completed by the fall of 2011

Reprecincting: All of these district line changes must then be reflected in the county and city
voting precinct lines that are used by the Elections office to determine where a person votes and
what ballot they will receive. New city districts will be in effect for the spring 2012 city elections
and new county districts will be in effect for the fall 2012 county elections. Before the elections,
every voter in Orange County will be notified of these changes.

Websites: These websites have information about census, redistricting and elections:

United States Census Bureau
Census Bureau redistricting website
National Conference of State Legislatures
Florida Division of Elections
Orange County Supervisor of Elections

Orange County, Florida
State and Local Redistricting Timeline 2011-2012
(All dates are subject to change)

2011
January                    Census Bureau geography (TIGER) data release

Early 2011                Redistricting Advisory Committees begin creating new county and city districts

January 10               Florida Legislature regular session convenes, begins
                                         creating Federal and State districts

January – March      Supervisor of Elections can evaluate state plans andprovide feedback and
                                         suggested changes

March 9                    Florida Legislature regular session ends, final districts approved

March – June           Governor, Supreme Court and Department of Justice review of state plans

June                          Florida Legislature releases final district lines to Elections Office

June – early July      Supervisor of Elections creates new county precincts to match redrawn
                                  Federal, State, and County district lines

August 14                 Supervisor of Elections conducts Primary Election, first election with new districts

November 6             Supervisor of Elections conducts General Election with new districts

November 2012 to January 2013 – elected officials sworn in and begin serving on new districts.  
                                   Effective dates based on each jurisdiction.