REDISTRICTING PARTNERS - 2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

1107 9th street, suite 230 sacramenro California 95814 To: Maria Huizar, Clark City of Santa Ana From: Paul Mitchell Date: Apr 11, 2018 Re: City of Santa Ana Districting Exhibit A The following is a proposed cost and structure for the City of Santa Ana conducting a review of the potential need to convert to a by -district election system in order to comply with the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). Redistricting Partners has worked with dozens of cities, school boards, community colleges, special districts and other agencies on racially polarized voting analysis for the purposes of identifying CVRA vulnerability. This includes all steps from the initial analysis, providing details of evidence from past elections that might be used in a CVRA claim, all the way to guiding the elected council and staff through the districting process, if necessary. We have worked in Orange County on CVRA analysis and led a project with several nonprofit organizations on redistricting issues looking specifically at cities and school boards, including Orange County local government agencies in Fullerton, Costa Mesa and Anaheim. We have also managed data for elections, polling, and other research in these jurisdictions for over 18 years. The two principals who would be working on this project would be the Owner of Redistricting Partners, Paul Mitchell, who has extensive statewide and local redistricting experience, and Owner of Political Data Inc, Gary Brown, who leads the state's largest bipartisan data company, and has a background specifically in issues surrounding the demographics and districting in Orange County. The city of Santa Ana currently uses districts to determine eligibility to run for each of six council seats, but has an at -large system of elections, meaning seats on the council are elected by all voters covered by the jurisdiction. These districts are drawn every 10 years, but only to accommodate population changes. In the current lines, the median population based on the 2010 census is 54,098, with the largest district just 1.25% over populated, and the smallest district 1.85% underpopulated. While the city has districts, it is still considered an At Large jurisdiction under the California Voting Rights Act. As such, it could be required to convert to by -area elections, and these districts would need to be drawn with