VIA Email To:

Governor Gavin Newsom
Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas
Assembly Elections Committee Chair Gail Pellerin
Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Chair Sabrina Cervantes

Re: League of Women Voters of California Opposition to Mid-Cycle Redistricting

Dear Governor Newsom, Senate pro Tem McGuire, Speaker Rivas, Chair Pellerin, and Chair Cervantes:

The League of Women Voters of California writes to express our strong opposition to mid-cycle redistricting for California’s Congressional seats.

Californians fought hard to take redistricting out of the hands of politicians and put it in the hands of the people to ensure that the people can choose their politicians and not the other way around. There is a good reason for that. Our independent redistricting process is one of the best tools that we possess to ensure that all communities have a voice – including communities of color and rural communities that have been historically marginalized. It’s a critical way for us to promote meaningful political representation and to make headway on encouraging engagement in the face of California’s significant problem with a participation gap that yields an unrepresentative electorate. Furthermore, while the Voting Rights Act offers a degree of protection for historically marginalized communities, it won’t protect communities of interest with populations too small to trigger that safeguard. In fact, a partisan map could erode hard-fought gains
made by communities through the California Citizens Redistricting Commission process.

Undermining California’s nationally recognized model for fair redistricting would set a harmful precedent nationwide. In Texas, the League of Women Voters is actively fighting extreme partisan gerrymanders, including filing an amicus brief in the case challenging Governor Greg Abbott’s attempt to expel State
Representative Gene Wu. To maintain a consistent national standard, states like California must reject partisan gerrymanders – even those framed as temporary – so we can stand united in opposing them wherever they occur.

Furthermore, temporary exceptions rarely stay temporary. Once you break a safeguard, you don’t just risk one or two or three elections, you set a precedent that future politicians can and will use again. This precedent would invite future gerrymanders in California, including from political actors whose policies we
may deeply oppose. Long-term damage to democratic norms will outlast any short-term gain.

We understand the urgency. Authoritarianism is not abstract; it is here, and it is dangerous. President Trump has created a constitutional crisis on multiple fronts – assaults to democracy that the League is at the vanguard of fighting. But the way to fight is not to abandon one of California’s greatest democratic reforms.

If California is going to lead, it should lead the right way. We urge you to lead with ideas and policies that inspire voters, not with political shortcuts that erode public trust. This is a moment for courage, not cynicism. Voters need leaders who will galvanize support by showing them what is at stake: their health, their
freedoms, and their economic future. In other words, elucidating the damaging impacts of the policies and actions of the current federal administration. The way to defeat authoritarianism is not by imitating it, but rather by offering something better.

Calling a rushed, off-cycle special election only compounds the harm. We know that these elections attract a small, unrepresentative electorate and leave voters little time to understand what’s at stake. That’s not how you build trust.

Any attempt to engage the public to react to maps in the short time available will be a hurried and cursory effort that falls far short of the sort of robust inquiry into the public’s views on their communities and issues of concern that was accomplished by the Citizens Redistricting Commission. Doing this in service of
gerrymandering districts, in which political party affiliation is the essential reason for undergoing a mid-decade redrawing of lines, does not build trust in the process or in the future of representative government. Partisan gerrymandering is not something that serves to build voter confidence that a better government
is in our future. The public already struggles to trust political institutions. Breaking the promise of independent redistricting confirms their worst suspicions. Fighting authoritarian tactics by adopting them ourselves damages long-term democratic resilience.

The League of Women Voters of California urges you to protect our independent redistricting process. Protect the principle that voters – not politicians – are in charge. And show the nation that the way to fight back against assaults to our fundamental rights and well-being is with leadership, vision, and faith in democracy, not with “temporary” gambits that will haunt us long after 2030.

Sincerely,

Dora Rose
Deputy Director

CC via email: Secretary of State Shirley Weber; California AAPI Legislative Caucus Chair Mike Fong; California Latino Legislative Caucus Chair Lena Gonzalez; California Legislative Black Caucus Chair Akilah Weber Pierson; California Legislative Progressive Caucus Chair Alex Lee; and California Legislative Women’s Caucus Chair Cecilia Aguiar-Curr