Vote No Prop.50: Gerrymandering is a disgrace on both sides of the isle

October 6, 2025

The original of this editorial can be found on the Appeal Democrat's website. The original text submited to the Appeal Democrat is located below the editorial. It contains links that support many of the claims in editorial.

Here is the text of the editorial originally submitted to the Appeal Democrat;

Protecting American Elections

It is a disgrace that the president of the United States and the governor of California have campaigned to gerrymander voting districts.

Ordinary people, bound together by shared economic, geographic, and social issues were entrusted by our Constitution with the right to vote and elect representatives with the same values and concerns. The 2024 congressional elections turned that notion on its head. Only one tenth of one percent separated the total number of votes for Democrats and Republicans in the most populous states. Gerrymandered voting districts translated into 25 more seats for Democrats in an election that was a virtual tie.

Proposition 50 will make the system even more unfair. The new districts will give 60% of California voters the power to choose over 92% of our Congressional representatives. That will effectively silence 40% of Californians and is not the representative government our founders risked their lives for.

The president acted egregiously when he pushed Texas to gerrymander their congressional districts. Sacramento politicians responded with feigned outrage and hypocrisy. They never complain that the four most gerrymandered large states are already controlled by their party. Looking beyond that, they have always wanted to manipulate California’s elections and opposed the creation of our Independent Redistricting Commission.

Ignore the governor’s stream of self-righteous comments about free speech, authoritarianism and that "Safeguarding the integrity of elections is essential to democracy …" He took an oath to protect and defend the 40% of Californians he now wants to silence.

Sacramento politicians’ Proposition 50 plan uses gerrymandered maps to overwhelm conservative inland districts with liberal voters from coastal areas. They ignore President Obama’s  call to Congress and the American people when he said "We have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters … Let a bipartisan group do it."

These same politicians have been in power for decades. Whatever their true intent was, the results of their rule is that we have the third highest cost of living in the nation, the highest home prices and nearly the highest rents. Our education system is failing. We are 5th in the percent of families living paycheck to paycheck, 46th in income equality and we lead the nation in homelessness. They repeatedly blocked efforts to increase penalties for sex trafficking of minors, selling drugs and committing serial retail theft. Their misplaced policies and values have failed our children, our elderly, our lower income and other vulnerable groups.

Their Proposition 50 now threatens to turn 40% of Californians into collateral damage in their personal war with the president.

End the war. Vote “NO” on Proposition 50