Local redistricting — redrawing district lines for counties, cities, school districts, and special districts — occurs after each census. We have prepared a guide to local redistricting for all Californians. It includes information about the rules and the timeline for redistricting, as well as how to be engage members of the public in the process. Get the toolkit!
I. What is redistricting and why do we do it?
II. What are the rules?
III. What is the timeline?
IV. Beyond the law: options to deal with potential gerrymandering
VI. Background: the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA)
Democracy depends on voters having the opportunity to choose their representatives. When elected officials redraw the lines of their own districts, they get to design their own territory and choose who their voters are. This distorts representative democracy. It can lead to manipulation of various types. Racially discriminatory manipulation weakens the voting strength of targeted minority communities. Partisan manipulation favors one political party over another.
We believe that to be fair, districts should be drawn in a transparent manner by politically independent special commissions that use unbiased criteria to help keep communities intact and to ensure that everyone is equally represented local redistricting rules
|The FairMaps California Local Redistricting Toolkit||1.05 MB|