I mostly don’t talk about politics on this blog, but this issue has been bouncing around in my brain for a while. There are less than two weeks to go for this California Special Election, and many people have already voted. But if you haven’t, and you’re on the fence, or you’re thinking you’ll vote NO, here’s why I believe you should vote YES.

It sucks that we’ve come to this

But Republicans started this fight

Proposition 50 is a response to the Texas Legislature redrawing their district maps, off of the usual 10-year census cycle, specifically to gain Republican seats in the House of Representatives in the 2026 election. This isn’t entirely unprecedented, but it is unusual, it’s a naked power grab, and President Trump actually requested that the Texas legislature (and other states) do this. This Proposition aims to counteract that by re-drawing the districts in California to nullify the potential change in House seats.

We are NOT stooping to their level

We are responding appropriately to the on-going attack on American democracy that Trump, the GOP, and the Supreme Court have been pursuing. In Texas, the Legislature just up and decided to change the district maps, because they could, and because they thought they’d get a political advantage from it.

Meanwhile, in California, we have an Independent Redistricting Commission, which has representatives of both major parties, draws district maps to be as “fair” as possible, and has been a great success, as measured by the high marks California gets for election fairness from independent assessments. This also means that our state legislature can’t arbitrarily change the district maps outside of the established process.

Hence, Prop 50 – which leaves it up to the voters to decide how to respond to the GOP’s shenanigans in Texas. Via direct democracy through the Proposition process, one of the unique features of our California Constitution, designed to let The People decide big issues when the legislature can’t ow won’t.

This is a measured, tactical response

Prop 50 only takes effect if the Texas redistricting goes through

Update 2025-12-11: there was originally a clause in there to tie Prop 50 to the Texas redistricting, but it was removed during its passage through the CA legislature. It hardly matters, since as of this update, Texas is still moving forward with their redistricting plan.

If the Texas redistricting fails court challenges, or gets reversed in some other way, Prop 50 doesn’t have any effect. It is contingent on that redistricting to come into effect. I might wish that the text of the proposition was clearer about that, but it does say (italics mine):

In response to the congressional redistricting in Texas in 2025, and notwithstanding any other provision of this Constitution or existing law, the single-member districts for Congress reflected in Assembly Bill 604 of the 2025–26 Regular Session pursuant to the requirements of Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 21400) of Division 21 of the Elections Code shall temporarily be used for every congressional election for a term of office commencing on or after the date this subdivision becomes operative and before the certification of new congressional boundary lines drawn by the Citizens Redistricting Commission pursuant to subdivision (d).

Prop 50 automatically expires at the next Census

Proposition 50 contains language to revert to the previous state of affairs after the 2030 census. This is, essentially, skipping one round of the Citizens Redistricting Commission’s work, then going back to how things were immediately afterwards.

(d) The Citizens Redistricting Commission established pursuant to Section 1 shall continue to adjust the boundary lines of the congressional, State Senatorial, Assembly, and Board of Equalization districts in conformance with the standards and process set forth in Section 2 in 2031, and every 10 years thereafter as provided in Section 1.^[35]

Some Californians will be disadvantaged by the new district maps

Partisan maps are not great, which is why we eliminated them

This sucks, and it would be great if we could do the minimal possible thing to ensure the desired outcome without, for example, cutting Mendocino County in half between two districts. There are also valid complaints that some minority groups might lose some representation in this re-shuffle. Again, not something I feel great about.

But the alternative is worse

I feel worse about Trump’s GOP strengthening their grip in DC. They’ve already taken away the ACA healthcare premium assistance from millions of Americans. They’re planning to cut Social Security payments. They’ve destroyed the international aid system, which alone will cost millions of lives. Trump is using Federal officers to intimidate his opponents. He’s having the Justice Department file baseless charges against his “enemies”. None of this is normal, and the Republicans have shown no interest in making any attempt to stop him.

So, hold your nose and vote YES on Prop 50

Democracy isn’t always pretty, but it’s the best system we have, and we have to act where we can to preserve it, while we still can.