Is California Gerrymandered? Who Draws The Voting Districts in California?

 

As of 2022 midterm elections approach, here's how redistricting is going. From “cracking” to “packing” we help you understand the tools of gerrymandering and the extent to which it happens in California.


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California Information on Redistricting From High-Quality Voter Information Sites

Here are some key, reliable sources on the internet to see how congressional districts changed after the 2020 census redistricting.

Ballotopedia: Redistricting in California after the 2020 Census

the National Council of State Legislatures

Ballotopedia has excellent redistricting resources so we won't repeat then here, except to link to information they have about California.

Five-thirty-eight: has a before and after redistricting map for California

What is Gerrymandering?

The maps are in and redistricting is underway.

Redistricting can either strengthen or weaken the power of a party in the state overall.

The two most common practices are “packing” and “cracking” where voters of a particular party are either lumped together into a single district (packing) or split into an ineffective minority across several districts (cracking).

Gerrymandering is the practice of taking this to an extreme.

Some states have independent redistricting commissions with the aim of ending partisan gerrymandering, 

Arizona, California, Michigan, Colorado,  and others

And other states have partisan maps drawn by the party in power in the state legislature, gerrymandered to favor the party in power that got to draw the map:

Texas, Arizona, Illinois and others





Jurisdictional relevance: ST

There are versions of this article for each State.