Politics & Government

GOP Group Can Start Collecting Signatures

The Republican-backed Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting is challenging the newly redrawn boundaries for state Senate districts.

A Republican-backed group can start collecting signatures to put a referendum on the June 2012 ballot challenging new boundaries for state Senate districts that were recently redrawn by a citizens committee, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced late Friday.

Ballot measure proponent Julie Vandermost, an Orange County businesswoman, and her supporters must collect 504,760 signatures of registered voters by Nov. 13 to qualify the measure for the next statewide ballot. The GOP-supported Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting is partnering with Vandermost to lead the effort. 

, along with boundaries for the U.S. House of Representatives, state Assembly and state Board of Equalization. 

The new Senate map threatens several GOP incumbents and could give Democrats the two-thirds majority needed to pass key legislation. The referendum petition, if signed by enough voters, would put the revised state Senate boundaries on the June 12 ballot and prevent them from being implemented unless approved by voters. It also would require court-appointed officials to set interim boundaries for use in the next statewide election.

An independent citizens commission redrew the district boundaries for the first time in California history. The commission was created after voters in November 2008 passed Proposition 11, the Voters First Act. The commission was composed of 14 members from various ethnic backgrounds and geographic locations and included five Democrats, five Republicans and four who decline to state a party preference.

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