FAQS

There are several ways to provide input to the Commission.

During a Public Meeting: In the spring and summer of 2021, the Commission will hold hearings where you can provide input by phone during the meeting or electronically prior to the meeting. You can find out more about upcoming community input meetings by visiting the Meetings section of our website. Electronically: You can also provide input to the Commission via the website by emailing: VotersFirstAct@crc.ca.gov or by drawing your map using the “Draw My Community” tool and submitting it to the Commission by visiting: DrawMyCACommunity.org . In Writing: You can mail your documents to: California Citizens Redistricting Commission 721 Capitol Mall, Suite 260 Sacramento, CA 95814 Through a Community-Based Organization (CBO): There are many CBOs that are working with communities and presenting input to the Commission.

The Commission is subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, which requires that any meeting consisting of nine or more members of the Commission to decide issues or even to receive information must be conducted in public. With that in mind, the number of public hearings the Commission will hold is entirely at the discretion of the Commission. Similarly, whether the hearings will be attended by all Commission members, or just a subset of members, will be up to the Commission to decide.

Before the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, the practice of many states was to require qualified African Americans to pass literacy tests in order to register to vote. Other states only allowed a person to register to vote if his or her grandfather was allowed to vote. The Voting Rights Act outlawed these practices.

In the 1970s, Congress heard extensive input about how state and local governments drew district lines and manipulated elections rules to prevent newly-registered African American voters from being able to elect candidates of their choice. Today, the Voting Rights Act protects all racial and language minorities, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The Commission will consider public input and legal and expert advice to ensure its final maps meet the Voting Rights Act requirements.

For a more detailed description of how the Voting Rights Act works, visit the U.S. Department of Justice .

1. Districts must be of equal population to comply with the US Constitution.
2. Districts must comply with the Voting Rights Act to ensure that minorities have an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.
3. Districts must be drawn contiguously, so that all parts of the district are connected to each other.
4. Districts must minimize the division of cities, counties, neighborhoods and communities of interest to the extent possible.
5. Districts should be geographically compact: such that nearby areas of population are not bypassed for a more distant population. This requirement refers to density, not shape. Census blocks cannot be split.
6. Where practicable each Senate District should be comprised of two complete and adjacent Assembly Districts, and Board of Equalization districts should be comprised of 10 complete and adjacent State Senate Districts.

In addition, the place of residence of any incumbent or political candidate may not be considered in the creation of a map, and districts may not be drawn for the purpose of favoring or discriminating against an incumbent, political candidate, or political party.

The Commission is required to define the geographic boundaries for the Congressional Districts, State Senate districts, State Assembly districts, and State Board of Equalization districts so that they contain reasonably equal populations. The 2010 Commission engaged in meetings throughout the State to identify communities of interest. Many of the meetings occurred during the and on weekends to make them more accessible to Californians.

Once the Commission has agreed on the geographic boundaries of the districts, the districts will be displayed on four maps: one map displaying the revised Congressional districts, a second map displaying the revised State Senate districts, a third map displaying the revised State Assembly districts, and a fourth map displaying the revised State Board of Equalization districts.

To be approved, each map must receive the affirmative vote of at least three Commissioners who are Democrats, three Commissioners who are Republicans and three Commissioners from neither of those parties. Once the Commission has approved the final maps, the maps are submitted to the Secretary of State with a report explaining the basis on which the Commission made its decisions.

The Act provides that any legal challenge to maps be sent straight to the California Supreme Court for review. This provision was written to expedite any legal challenge straight to the state’s highest court so a decision could be made on the maps in time for the next general elections.

1. Based on the 2020 Census data, California will have one less seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, so each congressional district will have to be a bit larger than it would have been if the state had continued with 53 seats.
2. There have been significant population shifts within California over the last ten years. While many areas have gained in population, some areas have grown much faster than others. Districts with the fastest-growing populations will have to shrink geographically; those that have lost population will have to grow
3. The 2010 Commission had a shorter time to complete its work and thus was unable to gather as much Community of Interest input as the 2020 Commission hopes to gather. The input that we are gathering – both through the new online tool at DrawMyCACommunity.org  and through more than 30 Community of Interest input meetings that we will be holding over the summer – will be important to the Commission as it looks at how best to draw the new district lines.

Help us draw the best possible districts by participating in our Community of Interest input meetings (see the schedule at WeDrawTheLines.CA.gov/meetings) or by sharing your Community of Interest input through our online tool at DrawMyCACommunity.org .

1. Gerrymandering generally refers to the drawing of district lines by who will benefit from the way the districts are drawn. One of the reasons that California citizens voted in 2008 and 2010 to give the job of redistricting to an independent citizens’ commission was to eliminate gerrymandering.
2. The 2010 California Citizens Redistricting Commission followed the same rules – established in California’s state constitution – that the 2020 Commission will be following.

• • Districts must be of nearly equal population to comply with the U.S. Constitution.
  • Districts must comply with the Voting Rights Act to ensure that minorities have a fair opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.
  • Districts must be drawn contiguously, so that all parts of the district are connected to each other.
  • Districts must minimize the division of cities, counties, neighborhoods and communities of interest to the extent possible.
  • Districts should be geographically compact such that nearby areas of population are not bypassed for more distant populations.
  • Where practicable, districts should be nested (be made up of complete and adjacent districts for another elected office)

3. Further, the Commission cannot consider the place of residence of any incumbent or political candidate in the creation of a map, and the districts may not be drawn for the purpose of favoring or discriminating against an incumbent, political candidate, or political party.
4. If you would like to review the 2010 Commission’s explanation of each district’s lines, please visit Final Report on 2011 Redistricting (PDF).

Help us draw the best possible districts by participating in our Community of Interest input meetings (see the schedule at WeDrawTheLines.CA.gov/meetings) or by sharing your Community of Interest input through our online tool at DrawMyCACommunity.org

1. California’s state constitution, in Article XXI, Section 2, Subsection d.3, stipulates that “Districts shall be geographically contiguous.”
2. This means that a district cannot include areas that are not connected to the rest of the district. Actual islands are to be considered connected to the nearest land mass.
3. “Connected” in this sense refers to every census block in a district bordering at least one other census block in the same district. It does not refer to use of any means of transportation – e.g., two census blocks are considered to border each other even if there is no direct means of moving from one to the other.
4. Some census blocks have little or no population. The absence of population does not mean that the blocks are not contiguous.
5. Contiguity also does not refer in any way to the shape of a district. As long as every census block in the district borders at least one other census block in the district, it is contiguous.

Help us draw the best possible districts by participating in our Community of Interest input meetings (see the schedule at WeDrawTheLines.CA.gov/meetings) or by sharing your Community of Interest input through our online tool at DrawMyCACommunity.org .