Important Points about the California Voters FIRST Initiative:

• Under current law, California legislators draw their own political districts.  Allowing politicians to draw their own districts is a serious conflict of interest that harms voters. 

• Not surprisingly, 99% of incumbent politicians were re-elected in the districts they had drawn for themselves in the last election. In the election before that, 100% of incumbents were reelected.

• Politicians draw districts that serve their interests, not those of our communities.   For example, cities such as Long Beach, San Jose and Fresno are divided into multiple oddly shaped districts to protect incumbent legislators.  Voters in communities like Korea town in Los Angeles and La Jolla in San Diego have no political voice because they have been split into as many as four different districts purely to protect incumbent legislators.   

• This reform will make the redistricting process more open and transparent so it cannot be controlled by one party or another.  It will give us an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the Commission, and it will ensure true independents can participate – a voice that is completely shut out of the current process. In addition, this reform requires support from Democrats, Independents and Republicans for approval of new redistricting plans.

• The Independent Citizens Commission will draw districts based on strict, non-partisan rules designed to ensure fair representation.  The reform takes redistricting out of the partisan battles of the legislature and guarantees redistricting will be debated in the open with public meetings, and all minutes will be posted publicly on the Internet.  Every aspect of this process will be open to scrutiny by the public and the press. 

• In the current process politicians are choosing their voters instead of voters having a real choice.  This reform will put the voters back in charge.   

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