State redistricting commission finalizes district maps
New maps for California’s district lines are now in place, and there are some changes coming to how SLO County votes in congressional elections.
The 2020 California Citizens Redistricting Commission completed and approved final maps for the state’s Congressional, Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization districts last night.
The commission drew four Board of Equalization districts, 52 Congressional districts, 40 Senate districts and 80 Assembly districts.
In one of the state’s new congressional districts, North SLO County — including Atascadero, Paso Robles and Cambria — has been grouped in Congressional District 19 which stretches all the way up to south San Jose.
Meanwhile, the City of San Luis Obispo is grouped with much of Santa Barbara County and further down to Ventura.
The commission is bound by certain rules when creating new maps: districts must be of equal population size, comply with the Voting Rights Act, be drawn contiguously, minimize the division of communities like cities and counties and be geographically compact.
There are also rules for how Senate, Assembly and Board of Equalization districts are grouped.
Republicans have criticized the new map for favoring Democrats, who currently control more than 75 percent of state Senate and Assembly seats.
There is now a public comment period for the final maps, and the next commission meeting is scheduled for Dec. 26.
You can see the final maps at wedrawthelinesca.org.
University of California to require boosters, may institute temporary online learning
Amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, booster shots will be required of all eligible students and staff at University of California schools in the upcoming term.
That’s according to UC President Michael V. Drake, who sent a letter to UC chancellors today which also brought up the possibility that the schools reinstate remote instruction in the new year.
If that happens, Drake said, the length of time that classes go remote could vary from school to school.
Several UC’s including Riverside, Irvine and San Diego have already announced that they will go remote for at least the first two weeks of teaching in January.
UC Santa Barbara has not yet made a decision.
