Governor Newsom’s proposal would put new congressional maps before voters in November. The maps are designed to oust at least five of California’s nine Republican members of Congress.
According to several recent CalMatters and other statewide news reports about Newsom’s redistricting plans, the California Legislature, where three-quarters of members are Democrats, has just voted to put Newsom’s new map on the ballot in a statewide special election on Nov. 4.
Because the redistricting would affect many if not most California Congressional district boundaries, seats and candidates, the new congressional lines need to be in place by the end of the year to meet next year’s June election deadlines, so that incumbents and other candidates know which voters they need to reach.
State Appropriations Chair Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, said California taxpayers will get an official cost estimate before the special election. But it’s unclear who will end up footing the bill, since the Legislature has not earmarked funds or identified an official estimated cost. Wicks suggested California counties will have to pay now and get reimbursed later, someday.
“The estimates are about $230 million,” Wicks said. “We will continue to work through those numbers. We’re going to make sure that counties are made whole, that our election officials are made whole as they implement this.”
Wicks and other Democrats are defending the price guesstimate as a worthwhile expenditure for “defending democracy.”
“If we’re talking about the cost of a special election versus the cost of our democracy, or the cost that Californians are already paying to subsidize this corrupt administration, those costs seem well worth paying in this moment,” said Asm. Isaac Bryan, D-Culver City.
State law requires elections officials to mail a ballot to every voter starting 29 days before the redistricting election, and to military and overseas voters 45 days before, which means redistricting ballots must be ready by late September.
The Secretary Of State’s office has said the Legislature must act by this Friday (August 22) to leave enough time for local elections officials to meet those deadlines for a Nov. 4 election. Even then, the next month will be extremely busy for them.
The state has promised to cover the expenses counties incur running this unexpected election, which won’t be cheap.
California leaders will also need to account for the cost of court battles over the state’s redistricting effort assuming it passes. It’s not clear how much additional money that could cost taxpayers.
Mendocino County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder Katrina Bartolomie adds:
“It could possibly run over $400k for Mendocino County. All of our costs have gone up.
I actually revised my estimate from $300,000 to $350,000 for the actual election. If the Proposition passes and we have to redistrict it could cost as much as $150,000 in staff and vendor time. [ms note: Apparently it has passed the State Legislature, just today, Thursday, August 21, 2025.]
This is all such a tight turnaround. With the fairly new regulations, we are required to certify the election in 28 days or by December 2, unless we have ALL of our signatures cured (we contact every voter whose signature doesn’t match or no signature at all on the back of the ballot envelope), then we can certify before that date. We have to have our redistricting done before December 19, which is the first date to issue candidate paperwork (Petition in Lieu of Filing Fee) to those voters who wish to file for candidacy.
In SB280 it does say it is the intent of the Legislature to ensure counties have sufficient funding to effectuate the costs for this special election. In the 2021 Newsom Recall the county was paid for our costs of $293,000. With this election, we will report our actual costs to the Secretary of State. Any overage (from estimate to actual costs) will be used to offset state costs for the next statewide election conducted by the county.
Mendocino County Assessor-Clerk-Recorder Katrina Bartolomie Does a fantastic job under very stressful conditions. Thank you Katrina.