After months of public and government input, the state redistricting commission will finish up its maps by Dec. 20. In late November, the County Supervisors voted to keep Winters In District 2.
Whether for federal, state, or local positions, redistricting is a contentious process. Redistrictors have to create well-shaped districts with even population distributions; however, local communities also have strong opinions about which districts they should be included in.
County
Although some in Winters hoped that it would no longer be grouped with Davis in District 2, Winters remains there.
Jesse Loren, Winters City Councilmember, said that the new District 2 has some advantages.
“One of the greatest strengths of the District 2 map is how much of greater Winters it includes by expanding to Yolo County’s westernmost boundary,” said Loren.
She also recommended that the next District 2 supervisor should, “remain engaged in Winters and greater Winters, perhaps having an office in Winters.”
State & Federal
The state redistricting commission is continuing its work re-drawing the initial drafts from Nov. 11. The commission continues to hold meetings every day until.
Alicia Fernandez, a state Redistricting Commissioner from Clarksburg, said “we do continue to receive input from that which is what this process is about.”
Fernandez emphasized the difficulty of maintaining precision in each of the maps. Assembly maps each must contain around 494,000 people and congressional districts must contain 760,000 people.
Finally, communities hope to be linked in with specific areas that reflect their interests; however, these sometimes result in “conflicting testimony,” said Fernandez. For example, she said some hope West Sacramento will be linked with Yolo County, while others hope it falls in a district with Sacramento.
The general testimony emphasized a desire for Yolo county to stay together in one district as well as a desire to be linked to Solano county, said Fernandez.
“The most important thing for our maps is to keep Yolo together, overlap our Assembly, Senate and Congressional maps, and again — keep Yolo together,” said Loren.
