CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — This week, several voters asked the Pinellas County Legislative Delegation to press the pause button involving redistricting.

Voting rights advocate Simon Adams was one of them.

“We are saying ‘no’ to redistricting, especially a mid-decade redistrict,” Adams said.

Adams is a field manager with the group Equal Ground.

The organization along with residents want state lawmakers to hold off until after the 2030 census. That would give residents more time to contact lawmakers.  

“Having a diverse set of input in the map rather than it just coming top to bottom from the legislature,” Adams said.

Adams, alongside Black voters, are still concerned over the most recent redistricting efforts.

“In 2022, when we did a redistricting, we saw a huge flip of power, and we saw the loss of two congressional Black access seats,” Adams said.

Adams is referencing a man the governor’s office drew, and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved that dismantled a district in north Florida that stretched from Jacksonville to Tallahassee. There was also a district in Central Florida that was broken up.   

The governor previously stated those districts were examples of racial gerrymandering, which is illegal under the federal Equal Protection Clause, as a reason to redraw those lines.

Republican State Rep. Alex Andrade, out of Pensacola, said the current map from 2022 could use some tweaks now as long as they follow both state and federal law.

“The more we focus on making them geographically compact, contiguous, making sure that they make sense, and they try and recognize the jurisdictional boundaries of local governments, etc. The more we focus on those, the closer and closer we get to having a true one person one-vote map,” Andrade said.

Democratic State Rep Michele Rayner, in St. Petersburg fears a new congressional map will be based on partisan gerrymandering, which is against state law after voters approved the Fair Districts Amendment in 2010. State standards are also meant to protect minority districts.

“I think the republicans have been very clear as to why they want to do this. You have some republicans who are at the beck and call of the president and he has indicated he wants more seats in congress,” Rayner said.

The Florida House has formed a select committee to examine redistricting. House Speaker Danny Perez would like clarification between state and federal laws as they explore drawing a new congressional map. Gov. DeSantis has spoken about his concerns with the Fair Districts Amendment. He said there are aspects in those voter-approved standards that conflict with federal law.