Redistricting is the way we change the districts that determine who represents us.
Every ten years, the US census is taken and political constituency district boundaries are redrawn based on the Census results. The responsibility of determining districts resided with the state legislature. Over the years, that power has frequently had been applied in a way that lead to the drawing of district lines to preserve incumbencies and assure a political party's control.
Most of our federal legislators, all of our state legislators, and many of our local legislators in towns and counties are elected from districts. Most of the time, district lines subdivide territory, so that there are several districts within one county, city, special district or state, and a representatives for each district. When that happens, we need some way to decide where the district lines will be drawn.
From: Prof. Justin Levitt's Guide to Drawing the Electoral Lines
STATE LEVEL
In anticipation of the 2010 Census and redrawing of districts, Californians passed two propositions that took the process out of the legislative bodies and transferred the task to a citizens commission. The Voters First Act Proposition 11, (2008), authorized the creation of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission and gave it the authority to draw the state’s legislative and Board of Equalization districts. Proposition 20 (2010) expanded this authority to include US congressional districts.
The Commission’s charge includes criteria * used as the basis for drawing 177 District maps in 2011, based on the 2010 census. The results were presented to the California legislature for adoption and include District maps for United States Representatives, California Senate and Assembly and the State Board of Equalization Districts. See: Redistricting in California
* Criteria
Proposition 11 listed and ranked six criteria for the Commission to weigh in drawing lines, with a prominent role for maintaining Communities of Interest.
(1) Districts shall comply with the United States Constitution. Senate, Assembly, and State Board of Equalization districts shall have reasonably equal population with other districts for the same office, except where deviation is required to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act or allowable by law.
(2) Districts shall comply with the federal Voting Rights Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1971 and following).
(3) Districts shall be geographically contiguous.
(4) The geographic integrity of any city, county, city and county, neighborhood, or community of interest shall be respected to the extent possible without violating the requirements of any of the preceding subdivisions. Communities of interest shall not include relationships with political parties, incumbents, or political candidates.
(5) To the extent practicable, and where this does not conflict with the criteria above, districts shall be drawn to encourage geographical compactness such that nearby areas of population are not bypassed for more distant population.
(6) To the extent practicable, and where this does not conflict with the criteria above, each Senate district shall be comprised of two whole, complete, and adjacent Assembly districts.
LOCAL LEVEL
Counties, cities, towns, and special districts in California also must redraw their districts. Furthermore, the College of Marin Board of Trustees will go to district rather than at-large representation. Other jurisdictions as well will likely convert to district representation.
There is a role for the LWVMC to use applicable Commission criteria as a basis for monitoring Marin local governments’ processes used in redrawing their district lines.
To LEARN MORE including how you can participate in making district maps more fairly represent you and your community, use the menu bar above (right).
Would you like to participate in our local redistricting work here in Marin County?
Contact Scott McKown: redistricting@marinlwv.org
