HOW TO PAINT AN ACCURATE PICTURE OF YOUR COMMUNITY
According to the 2020 Census, 3.5 million people live in our border region in San Diego and Imperial counties. At the California Citizen Redistricting Commission, we understand that there are probably nearly as many diverse community stories and ways to draw district lines. When we draw the lines, your input will help us put a face to the data. Help us get an accurate picture of your community by participating today.
California must redraw the boundaries of its congressional, state Senate, state Assembly and State Board of Equalization districts every 10 years to reflect the new federal census population data. These lines are redrawn by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, an entity independent from politicians. The commission has 14 members, five Democrats, five Republicans and four who are from neither of those parties. A significant benefit of independent redistricting is ensuring fair representation, where residents choose the representative of their choice instead of having elected officials draw their own districts and choose their constituency.
The state’s redistricting commission will use at least three data sources to assist its efforts to draw fair and representative districts. The first is the allocation from the federal government that California will have 52, down one from the present 53 congressional districts based on the 2020 Census numbers. The second is the Census 2020 redistricting data from the statewide database. The last is input from you regarding your “communities of interest” and if we are interpreting your communities accurately.
Drawn on community maps, communities of interest reflect people who want to be represented in the same district. To define your communities of interest, think of the people with whom you live, learn, work, play, celebrate, protest and pray. This summer throughout California, the state redistricting commission hosted 35 virtual listening sessions, with three focusing on the Imperial Valley and San Diego County and four statewide. We provided interpreters and native language lines in 13 languages so we could hear from all Californians. At the end of our tour, 1,340 people provided testimony on their communities. Over 300 were from Imperial Valley and San Diego County.
These testimonies are a small window into the communities in our counties. We learned that Imperial Valley and San Diego County is a dynamic region with diverse communities. A few highlights of what we heard include: Several people requested that Barrio Logan remain with the South Bay and not be placed with Coronado and the city of San Diego. We also heard that the agricultural communities in northern San Diego would like to be represented together. While some asked to be grouped with cities in Riverside County or Orange County, others asked not to be. African immigrants shared that their communities lived in a corridor from City Heights to El Cajon and asked that we keep them together. Some residents in City Heights and southeastern San Diego want a connection to the South Bay. Some people in Imperial Valley shared that they felt more aligned because of the Salton Sea with East Coachella Valley than with San Diego County. Again, these are some examples of what has been shared, and there is still time for you to participate.
In October, commissioners began to match the input received from Californians and the redistricting census data. With the help of our line drawing team, we will begin to produce rough sketches of district options and possibilities. We encourage the public to weigh in on our “visioning” process.
In November, we will post draft maps. These maps will take the rough sketches or visualizations and run them through our six criteria. These criteria include, in order of priority, that the districts must:
Be of equal population size
Comply with the Voting Rights Act Be drawn contiguously
Minimize the division of city, counties, neighborhoods and communities of interest, to the extent possible
Be compact
And, if possible, nest two Assembly districts into one Senate district and 10 Senate districts into one Board of Equalization district.
Fair maps depend on your participation. Visit our website at wedrawthelinesca.org for more information, to see our most recent visualization and to submit your input.
Sinay is a California citizen redistricting commissioner and nonprofit consultant who lives in Encinitas. isa commission field lead for San Diego and lives in Eastlake.