This article is co-published with Capital & Main, a non-profit publication based in California reporting on topics like economics, the environment, and politics.
Californians have until Nov. 4 to vote on Proposition 50, a ballot measure led by Gov. Gavin Newsom that seeks to redraw the state’s congressional maps to help Democrats and cancel out similar Republican-led efforts in other states.
President Donald Trump has urged Republican lawmakers across the country to create congressional maps that will benefit their party in next year’s midterm elections. Texas officials have already taken up Trump’s request, redrawing their districts to provide House Republicans with an additional five seats. Missouri has also approved a new congressional map designed to give Republicans another House seat.
In California, mid-decade redistricting has been illegal since voters established an independent redistricting commission in 2008, transferring the power to redraw district lines from politicians to members of the public. But now, even some advocates of that commission are supporting Prop. 50, or the Election Rigging Response Act, which would temporarily hand back redistricting to lawmakers and net California Democrats an additional five House seats that are currently held by Republicans.