Districting is subject to a constitutional criterion that mandates that districts must be (roughly) equal in population. The districts must also comply with federal law, specifically the Federal Voting Rights Act, which aims to ensure that protected groups, if certain criteria are met, have the ability to elect a candidate of their choice.
California’s FAIRMAPS Act was amended in 2023 to ensure that the same criteria mandated in local redistricting would also be used when jurisdictions transition to by-district elections. The FAIRMAPS Act explains that the purpose of these changes is to “Establish ranked criteria that prioritize keeping whole neighborhoods and communities of interest together, facilitate political organization and constituent representation, and prohibit gerrymandering, including incumbent-protection gerrymandering.”
For more information, please see California Elections Code Section 21100 here.
These are the criteria that must be followed, in order of importance:
- Each district shall contain nearly the same number of people.
- Boundaries shall be drawn in a manner that complies with the United States Constitution and the Federal Voting Rights Act.
- Council districts shall consist of contiguous territory, meaning that it is possible to travel between any two points in the district without leaving the district.
- Council districts shall respect communities of interest and local neighborhoods as much as practicable. Communities of Interest generally refer to a contiguous population that shares common social and economic interests that should be included within a single district for purposes of fair and effective representation.
- Council districts shall follow natural or artificial boundaries, such as streets, and be easily understandable to residents.
- Council districts shall be drawn in a compact manner if it does not conflict with the above criteria, which means that nearby populations shall not be bypassed for more distant groups of persons.
- The process will not favor or disfavor incumbents, candidates and parties. In other words the maps will disregard where incumbents and candidates live, and also disregard the interests of political parties.
In summary, this means the following:
- We will use a mapping program to construct districts after public input has been received.
- Census data will be used to find out how many people live in each part of the city and ensure that each district contains roughly the same number of people.
- We will build a dataset that allows us to preliminarily evaluate whether the district is in compliance with the Federal Voting Rights Act.
- Census geography will be used to ensure that the districts are contiguous.
- We will collect and utilize Community of Interest data and information about where neighborhoods are from the residents of Hayward when drawing districts.
- The district lines will follow census geography, which uses visible features such as streets, to ensure that the districts are easily understandable.
- We will assess the districts for compactness and make possible adjustments if these do not negatively impact the higher-ranked criteria.
- We will not use any address information for current council members or potential candidates or use political party affiliation or information in the drawing of districts.