Early voting for the statewide special election begins this Saturday, Oct. 25, when voters can consider Proposition 50, a Congressional redistricting measure. Early voting is available at several early polling sites in Oakland, including the main branch of the Oakland Public Library.
Voters can also wait and cast their vote on Election Day, Nov. 4. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters provides a map of voting centers. Anyone who has not yet registered to vote can no longer do so online, but would-be voters can show up and do a conditional same-day registration at their polling place or at the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Office, at 1225 Fallon St., Room G-1.
People choosing to vote by mail must postmark their ballots or deliver them to an election drop box by Nov. 4. Voters can track the status of their ballot through a state site.
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 and North Carolina then followed suit, and five 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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