Answering some common questions about Prop. 50

Voters file into a San Diego County Registrar of Voters office in File photo by Chris Stone Times of San Diego This story was originally published by CalMatters Sign up for their newsletters There s no question that the proponents of Proposition have a partisan goal By seeking to adopt a map to put more Democrats in power in areas now represented by Republicans they are asking voters to temporarily find a way around the state s independent nonpartisan redistricting commission which for the past two decades has prioritized maps that keep similar communities together and provide more electoral opportunities for communities of color Does that mean that the proposed new congressional districts would be less representative of voters beyond party preferences We looked into selected common questions Who drew the Prop map Paul Mitchell a veteran Democratic redistricting expert in Sacramento and a group of similar consultants drew the map Mitchell explained in an interview that he took input from California s Democratic congressional delegation before sending a proposed map to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee The committee then sent the proposal to the state Legislature which adopted the map as part of its vote to put Prop on the November ballot The proposition would allow the state to temporarily use those proposed district lines Isn t California already gerrymandered Not quite Countless Republicans including Vice President J D Vance already complain that under California s current map Democrats control over of congressional seats even though the party got just under of statewide votes in the presidential polling But that doesn t mean the maps are intentionally drawn to give Democrats an unfair advantage Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two-to-one The citizen commission that drew the maps composed of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans as well as four independents were specifically forbidden from considering party registration in deciding how to draw the lines They did have to consider geography and Democrats and Republicans don t live in an even distribution across the state Plus several of the current blue districts are highly competitive with the incumbent Democrats winning them last year with razor-thin margins Two academic institutions that rate states redistricting plans say California s current map is mostly fair PlanScore uncovered the map is tilted toward Democrats by two measures and balanced by two other measures Princeton University s Gerrymandering Project gave California s map a B amount on partisan fairness docking it only for giving incumbent politicians an advantage The proposed new map got an F from the organization Would the new map further divide communities Both proponents and opponents of Prop claim their favored map the existing one or the proposed new one keeps cities and counties together more often resulting in better representation by keeping similar communities under the same congressmember So which is it It depends how you look at it and each side phrases their proposes differently The proponents of Prop are correct in saying their map splits fewer total cities and counties into two or more districts than the current map That s according to analyses of both maps by HaystaqDNA the firm that assisted with the nonpartisan redistricting in An analysis by the nonpartisan Inhabitants Agenda Institute of California revealed that difference to be nearly negligible But the Democrats map has more cities and counties that are split among three or more districts rather than only two That s why opponents are also correct in saying Prop splits communities more times though in their argument mailed to voters they overcounted the number of times But keeping cities and counties intact isn t the only way to judge the quality of a congressional district For starters big cities have to be split into multiple districts to ensure that each congressmember represents the same number of people Both maps give each district Californians give or take one constituent Plenty of California cities are split in both maps because the state constitution requires independent map-drawers to consider not just keeping cities and counties together but also communities of interest which the law defines as a contiguous population which shares common social and economic interests that should be in one district to be represented fairly In any region that could mean everyone who sends their kids to the same school district or everyone who works in farming or everyone who relies on I- for their daily commute But there s no set definition of all communities of interest so once you consider them it becomes a matter of opinion how well each map represents Californians Prop s opponents have highlighted Lodi a -person city north of Stockton presently represented in one congressional district that would be split among three districts under Prop The Lodi City Council opposes the measure Mitchell commented the split stemmed from efforts to strengthen a northern Central Valley district for Democrats by moving in more voters from Stockton The resulting shuffle forced Lodi residents to be split up but also unified Antioch and Martinez residents into one district and Vacaville and Solano County together in another All four of the latter cities and counties are split up under the current map It s a tradeoff he noted You could have competing communities overlapping Which one s more significant But opponents say those tradeoffs should only be made with general input and without partisan goals In deciding which cities counties and communities to keep together or split up independent redistricting commission member Patricia Sinay mentioned the commission held numerous hearings and received tens of thousands of written comments Saying one splits more than the other it s not that informative revealed Sinay a Democrat who opposes Prop What did the people want What did the communities of interest ask for How does Prop affect representation for people of color In the weeks leading up to the polling opponents have highlighted regions that Prop s maps would split up against local group leaders wishes In a press release issued by the other No on campaign funded by House Republicans last month local politicians in Temple City and Azusa denounced the proposed maps for drawing lines through Asian American and Latino communities in east Los Angeles County But in general the proposed map doesn t certainly change much according to the analysis by PPIC If there are enough minority voters in a region to make up the majority of a congressional district it could trigger the federal Voting Rights Act which requires states to draw districts protecting the communities ability to elect representatives of their choosing There are such congressional districts in California all with a majority of Latino voters Other concentrated racial communities that don t have enough numbers to be in the majority still have districts that are drawn with their interests in mind like Asian voters in east Los Angeles County or Black voters in south L A In six districts Asian voters are at least of the population enough to influence an vote California also has two districts where Black voters reach that threshold and seven where Latino voters do Prop wouldn t change any of that The masses program institute even discovered the proposed map would add one more district where Latino voters make up at least of the population Specific communities may have complaints about specific lines drawn by the proposed plan senior fellow Eric McGhee wrote But the plan as a whole is very similar to the current one in the majority respects it deviates mostly by creating more Democratic seats CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable