Every once in a while, we witness historical moments in our nation’s elections. Who would have thought one of ours would be a special, gerrymandering election to escape the clutches of totalitarianism?

California is hosting a special election on Tuesday with the intention of redistricting state congressional maps to sway California’s already Democratic-dominated assembly into a higher majority. Why would they do this? Because Texas did it first. 

Earlier this year, Texas voted to gerrymander its congressional district maps to effectively give an advantage to Republicans in the House of Representatives for the 2026 midterms. While this order was sent by Trump, Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, was the person who signed this into law. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom decided there was no choice but to respond to this intentional maneuver, which is why our state gets the first opportunity to counter this stance. However the vote ends up, the proposed maps would only last until 2030, when the next redrawing takes place following the national census. 

Traditionally, district maps are drawn by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, which consists of a 14-member group consisting of five Republicans, five Democrats and four of those not affiliated with either party. 

Local politician Doug LaMalfa is on the list of seats that would be redistricted. LaMalfa has been in some controversy of his own for his unwavering support of Trump and his cuts to Medi-cal, resulting in the closure of multiple rural hospitals. Not only is this harmful to the local rural community, but Enloe Hospital is now left with no choice but to accept the surge of patients coming from Glenn County’s only emergency room. 

In general, the U.S. population is not in favor of gerrymandering. A survey taken in August shows that 75% of U.S. adults find gerrymandering to be a major problem. It’s shady, and seems like a sly way to get voters to elect the candidates that the party in power favors. 

And just like that, it slowly starts to feel a lot more serious for something that is called a “special election” — it sounds exciting, yet undeniably, the panic starts to sink in. 

It’s hard not to question the motivation behind this election. It seems as though if California chooses not to redistrict, we would be bending the knee to an already Republican-dominated political sphere in the U.S.

In a way, it feels like a double-edged sword. Yes, your vote will change the state of the House of Representatives, but why does gerrymandering even exist in the first place? In fact, the Brennan Center argues that partisan gerrymandering is undemocratic. 

Here is the complete list of all the seats that would be targeted in the election:

• CA01 LaMalfa-R: losing right-learning areas along the Oregon border and gaining left-learning areas in Santa Rosa
• CA03 Kiley-R: losing Republican-dominated Eastern Sierras and gaining Democrat areas around Sacramento. The Eastern Sierras move to another Republican-dominated district
• CA22 Valadao-R: gaining left-learning leaning areas in Fresno
• CA41 Calvert-R: moving from Inland Empire to Democrat leaning areas in LA county. The Inland Empire would be split in other districts
• CA48 Issa-R: losing Republican areas in San Diego’s East County, gaining Democrat- leaning areas around Coachella Valley

Multiple Democrat-dominated seats are also going to receive a boost from the redrawing if it passes, and only one Republican seat will gain more points. 

Advertisements for Yes on Prop 50 emphasize the importance of ‘giving power back to the people,” yet this doesn’t necessarily seem as such. How are we receiving power when politicians are the ones who can manipulate the maps whenever they want? 

So yes, while it would seem undemocratic to vote for gerrymandering, acting high and mighty in this moment is not what the country needs. Vote for what matters, and in this election, your democracy is what is on the bill. 

Marianne Akre can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]