Redistricting: What It Means For You

Union City may may sever ties with parts of Fremont and all of Newark in two voting districts.

The 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission has redrawn the lines for the state's 53 Congressional districts, 40 State Senate districts, 80 Assembly districts and four Board of Equalization seats after working for months on the endeavor.

The commission has kept Union City intact, but separates it from its Tri-Cities counterparts in both congressional and State Assembly districts. However, Union City will continue to share a state senator with Fremont and Newark.

Why should you care?

As the commission states on its website: "How the district boundaries are configured can make the difference between empowering and maximizing the voters’ voices or minimizing and muting those voices."

Having citizens draw electoral districts is a new process for California, and it represents a large-scale national effort to eliminate gerrymandering.

The commission was spawned by a 2008 voter-approved ballot measure that stripped state legislators of the power to draw their own district boundaries. The commission's tasks were expanded to include the drawing of congressional districts last November.

Redistricting occurs every 10 years using population data from the most recent U.S. Census. This time around, the commission says its goal is to create contiguous districts of relatively equal population that minimize city and county divisions, and to group towns with similar "communities of interest."

Click the following links to see where Newark falls under the new proposed districts:

For more information or to view the maps, click here.