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Florida lawmakers held the first of 26 public hearings today as they begin the process of redrawing legislative and congressional district lines. The once-a-decade process is already under fire from the League of Women Voters and others because no maps have yet been drawn. With no maps there is little for the public to speak about. Deirdre McNab, Florida President of the League of Women Voters, has written lawmakers asking them to speed up the map drawing.

“We’ve called upon the legislature to accelerate the timeline, to begin working on maps right away so that the people of Florida have something to comment on,” McNabb said. “And to also, to drop their litigation lawsuits against the very amendments that the voters of Florida approved at 63 percent.”

But Will Weatherford, House Chairman of the Redistricting committee, says lawmakers want to hear from the public before drawing any lines.

“We’re trying to utilize as many sources as we can to get the word out about what we’re doing and why it’s important,” Weatherford said. “I mean, we’re talking about redrawing the entire state of Florida. We don’t want to do that until we get the participation from the public.”

More than 100 people attended the first hearing this afternoon. A second hearing takes place tonight at the Capitol, then moves to Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach on Tuesday and Panama City on Wednesday.