Californians Back Prop 50 Redistricting Measure by Nearly 2-to-1 Spread — Poll

New polling of California voters shows strong support for temporarily changing the state’s process of drawing congressional boundaries in order to diminish the effects of a nationwide Republican gerrymandering scheme.

At the behest of the Trump administration, several GOP-led states have either started or completed redistricting processes to give their party added advantages in next year’s midterm elections. Traditionally, the party opposite of the president’s fares much better in such elections, but the plan by federal Republicans aims to lessen potential losses by increasing the number of U.S. House seats the GOP will likely win in November 2026.

In response to the GOP scheme, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) proposed a new ballot measure this past summer, Proposition 50, that aims to do the opposite — lessen the number of seats Republicans can expect to win in the Golden State next year, with the goal being that those GOP losses will make up for some of the Democratic seats being taken away in other states.

California’s process for redrawing maps requires maps to be redrawn only every ten years, following the federal census. It also features an independent, citizen-led redistricting commission, to lessen the political nature of redrawing boundaries.

Prop 50 (otherwise known as “The Election Rigging Response Act”) would temporarily allow the state legislature, in its current session, to bypass the independent commission and redraw its own maps, likely handing five Republican-held House seats to Democrats.

Stating that “California has long stood as a national leader for fair, independent, and nonpartisan redistricting,” the measure specifically mentions the scheme to diminish voters’ power elsewhere.

“It is the intent of the people that California’s temporary maps be designed to neutralize the partisan gerrymandering being threatened by Republican-led states without eroding fair representation for all communities,” the ballot measure says.

New polling shows that most voters in the state plan to support the initiative.

According to a CBS News/YouGov survey published this week, 62 percent of Californian voters support Prop 50, with only 38 percent saying they oppose the measure.

Among those likely to support the ballot initiative, 50 percent said they are motivated by national political issues. Seventy-five percent of respondents indicated they believe their vote would signal opposition to Trump; in a separate question, 70 percent said it would represent opposition to Republican lawmakers nationwide.

The findings of that poll indicate that most voters in support of the measure understand that it is a response to the GOP’s gerrymandering efforts in other states.

The decision for most to vote this way is likely a reluctant one, however. Indeed, a Citrin Center/Politico poll published earlier this month found that most voters do not want California to necessarily abandon its independent redistricting structure, with 64 percent of voters saying they want the commission to remain in place, and only 36 percent stating they want political boundaries in the state to be drawn by lawmakers themselves.

That’s a viewpoint shared by voters across the country overall. According to an NBC News Decision Desk poll in September, 82 percent of Americans back the idea of independent commissions when it comes to states redrawing their lines. And a Common Cause poll that month also found that 76 percent of Americans oppose legislatures redrawing maps between censuses.