As the redistricting date grows closer, the application process for the California Redistricting Commission has been prolonged. The deadline is August 9, and only 7,800 people have submitted their names compared to the 30,000 Californians who applied 10 years ago.
With diversity becoming a significant concern for the state auditor’s office, the racial imbalance has been one of the most critical issues their seeing during this process, 67% of the applicants are white despite California Anglos making up 37% of the population. With other concerns including the applicants political standing, in which just 33% of the applications sent in were from Californians registered to minor parties.
The original plans for this commission called for taking politics out of the mix, however with partisan lines being drawn in every aspect of life there comes a time where we have to ask ourselves whether including parties into the commission could help increase diversity.
We need to include an equal amount of applicants from each party to truly show California’s diversity, with the first round deadline coming up on August 9th the State auditor’s office needs to not only account for gender, race, and ethnicity as properties of a diverse panel but also include parties in the decision-making process.
Groups throughout California are worried that with how quickly the deadline is approaching, and with how few applicants there are, certain minority communities will be restricted from helping determine the new district lines. The Redistricting California Collaborative recently requested in a letter to State Auditor Elaine Howle that the application deadline is postponed until the end of September.
Photo by Sasha
