One of the programs that falls under the umbrella of the Capital Center for Law and Policy at McGeorge School of Law is the Municipal Innovation Program. The Programs’ current project – the California Local Redistricting Project – which is done in partnership with California Common Cause, is excited to announce a new ordinance generator for local governments to fight redistricting abuse at the local level.

The new local ordinance generator, which can be found on the California Local Redistricting Project’s website, enables any user to easily draft a sample ordinance for establishing a local independent redistricting commission. With recent news of Congressional districts being thrown out in court, having a user-friendly tool available that allows local governments in California to create tailored ordinances creating independent redistricting commissions is an incredibly important step towards fighting redistricting abuse.

Below are some selected quotes from the California Local Redistricting Project’s press release announcing the new tool.

“California’s local governments are leading the way on redistricting reform. We view this tool as a big step forward towards providing local officials and advocates with the educational resources and tools they need to consider and implement reform in their communities.”- Nicolas Heidorn, Director of California Local Redistricting Project

“This is an exciting, game-changing model for promoting local reform. This is worlds away from the traditional, one-size-fits-all packaged approach to reform. The ordinance generator gives local advocates a smarter tool to craft a reform that is tailored to the needs of their communities. This is a pioneering approach to encouraging context-dependent model legislation that we hope gets imitated in other contexts.” – Professor Leslie Gielow Jacobs, Director of Capital Center for Law & Policy at McGeorge School of Law

“When incumbents, at any level of government, draw their own election districts, it is human nature to give themselves an electoral advantage. At the local level, we have seen redistricting used to expel political challengers and excise communities of color who, incumbents fear, may not vote for them. Independent, commission-based redistricting is vital to giving all Californians a voice in our democracy.” – Kathay Feng, Executive Director of California Common Cause