Deadlines closing in on new boundaries for supervisors, congress, senate and assembly districts

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - Every ten years the country undergoes a census count, the results of which are used for many different things from funding to boundaries of elected officials.

Ever since the count results were released, districts and states have been revamping boundaries based on where the population now resides. There have been major shifts in populations, resulting in California losing one seat in the House of Representatives, and boundaries being recalculated for the Assembly, Senate, Congress, and Board of Equalization.

Districts must be of equal population to comply with the U.S. Constitution, minimize the division of cities, counties, neighborhoods, and communities of interest to the extent possible, and ensure minorities have an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.

In El Dorado County, hearings have been held to redraw the five districts. With a population burst at the southwest end of the county, some districts will become larger (as will District 5 which covers South Lake Tahoe and Meyers), and smaller, like District 1 and 2.

The El Dorado County redistricting alternatives were created based on the census population of 191,185 people, keeping each of the five districts with a target population of 38,237.

At the November 2 special El Dorado County Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, the Board directed staff to make tweaks to some of the redistricting maps under consideration.

Staff will present those revisions at a special redistricting hearing to take place during next Tuesday's Board meeting. The draft maps can be viewed by following this link: https://www.edcgov.us/Go…/Elections/redistricting-draft-maps. If the BOS chooses one map at this meeting, then an ordinance will be brought back at its Dec. 7 meeting. Otherwise, there will be another map discussion and final choice on Dec. 7 with the ordinance hearing on Dec. 14. The final plans must be sent to the secretary of state by Dec. 27, 2021.

The hearing will be at 1:30 P.M. on Tuesday, November 16. Public input is invited, either in person, via Zoom, or by phone. To join via Zoom go to https://zoom.us/j/83473957012. To join by phone, call 530-621-7603 or 530-621-7610.

On the state's side, on Wednesday the 2020 California Citizens Redistricting Commission (Commission) released draft maps for the state’s Congressional, Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization districts ahead of the CA Supreme Court-mandated November 15, 2021 deadline.

South Lake Tahoe could change congressional districts that remove them from sharing the same congressman as Placer County, place them in the same region as Madera and Inyo County to the south, and separate from the west slope of El Dorado County.

Lake Tahoe, and El Dorado, Alpine, Placer, Nevada, Plumas counties currently share the same senate district, but the proposed maps cut out Lake Tahoe and have the lake residents join the same district as Tehama and Shasta counties with the rest of Placer and El Dorado County put into the Sacramento region.

The assembly proposed boundary is the only one to keep El Dorado and Placer counties intact.

The maps can be seen here (https://www.wedrawthelinesca.org/draft_maps?utm_campaign=draft_maps&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ccrc) and comments can be made here (https://airtable.com/shrQDD2ta2emnSzzO).

There is an interactive viewer of the state's maps here - https://www.wedrawthelinesca.org/map_viewer.

Draft Map Public Input Meeting Schedule
November 17, 2021—Congressional District Feedback
November 18, 2021—Assembly District Feedback
November 19, 2021—Senate District Feedback
November 20, 2021—Board of Equalization & Any District Feedback
November 22, 2021—Any District Feedback
November 23, 2021—Any District Feedback