The California State Legislature is facing a Friday deadline to approve Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed November election to gerrymander the state and add up to five additional Democratic House seats — as counties scramble to secure taxpayer funds for the ballot initiative.
Newsom, who announced the measure dubbed the “Election Rigging Response Act” at an Aug. 14 press conference, has on multiple occasions said the state will cover the cost counties will run up. However, California’s counties are expressing concerns that they might wind up waiting until after the election for reimbursement from the state.
County leaders have discussed pulling taxpayer funding from sheriff’s departments, county jails, and wildfire prevention in order to foot the steep bills Newsom’s election will bring, CalMatters reported.
“The additional expenses tied to a statewide special election would fall almost entirely on counties — imposing a significant and unfunded financial burden on already strained local budgets,” the California State Association of Counties wrote in an Aug. 14 letter to the governor and Democratic state legislature leaders.
The California Department of Finance has yet to determine how much money it will offer counties to cover the cost of the election, but a spokesman for the department claimed legislation currently being considered in Sacramento will provide the counties with funding in advance, according to CalMatters.
In response to the department’s lack of information, the California Assembly Republican Caucus released its estimate of how much the special election would cost taxpayers, finding the gerrymandering vote could carry a price tag of up to $235.5 million. The GOP caucus based its information on the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, which cost taxpayers $200 million, but accounted for factors such as inflation, postage, and an increase in voter registration in its analysis.
However, because Californians spent months gathering enough signatures to trigger the gubernatorial recall, the state had significantly more time to prepare for the election and was able to send counties funding ahead of time. Newsom, whose proposed gerrymandered map was released Friday, is still waiting on the state legislature to approve ballot language in time for Election Day in about two and a half months.
Counties face a shortened timeline to not only secure funding, but also machines, ballot paper and envelopes, printers, vendors, voting locations, and volunteers. Some counties, such as Orange, have already begun planning for the election, with their registrar of voters citing concerns that the county’s supplies will not arrive in time if they wait for the state’s official confirmation of the election. The county — the state’s third most populous — is eyeing a $12 million bill for the upcoming election.
Even if the special election proceeds as Newsom plans, it can still end up backfiring on him and the state’s Democratic-dominated legislature. A poll released Aug. 14 showed that only 36% of Californians support the legislature regaining control of the state’s redistricting authority from its current commission.
Newsom announced the “Election Rigging Response Act” in response to Texas’s GOP-controlled legislature drafting a proposed House map that would likely result in Republicans gaining five Democratic-held seats in the Lone Star state. Unlike California, Texas does not require a ballot initiative to greenlight mid-decade redistricting by the state legislature.
Newsom’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller New Foundation’s request for comment, and the California Department of Finance could not be reached for comment.
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