Today is the last day to register to vote in the statewide special election on Nov. 4, when voters can consider Proposition 50, a Congressional redistricting measure.
Voters can register online through the Alameda County Registrar of Voters or the California Secretary of State’s website.
Those who are registered can cast their votes early in person starting on Oct. 25 at select polling locations or show up to vote on Election Day, Nov. 4. People choosing to vote by mail must postmark their ballots or deliver them to an election drop box by Nov. 4. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters also has a map of voting centers.
Prop 50, backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, authorizes the California state legislature to temporarily change the state’s Congressional district maps in response to partisan redistricting by the Texas GOP. If the measure passes, California’s new district maps would be in place only through 2030, when the next federal census is conducted. After that, the state’s independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, created by a 2008 state law, would resume oversight over congressional district maps.
“Californians have been uniquely targeted by the Trump Administration,” Newsom said in signing a bill authorizing the ballot measure. “Thanks to the hard work of the California legislature, they will have a choice to fight back.”
At President Donald Trump’s urging, the Texas legislature redrew the state’s Congressional districts in August to favor Republicans. Missouri then followed suit, and six more GOP-led states are preparing to do the same. A broad range of progressive California organizations, led by the California Federation of Labor Unions, are encouraging voters to even the electoral scales with a Yes on 50 vote. “The Trump Administration has attacked working families,” Keith Brown, secretary-treasure of the Alameda Labor Council, told The Oaklandside. “The Yes on Proposition 50 campaign is a tangible way we can fight back.”
A campaign has also emerged to oppose Prop 50, heavily backed by multimillionaire Charles Munger, Jr., who supported the original redistricting measure, arguing that the measure would repoliticize the districting process. “I loathe Texas gerrymandering. I loathe mid-decade gerrymandering,” Munger told ABC News. “It was a national outrage, but the way to beat it is not to become like it.”
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