00:00Began when you're ready.
00:01All right.
00:02I don't know where this is going.
00:05Madam Chair, thank you so much, and to members of the committee and members of the public.
00:09And I know, Madam Chair, you've reported that more than 13,000 Californians have already
00:13weighed on this issue and very much appreciate the opportunity to present one of the pieces
00:19of legislation that are necessary for the public to have the ability to chart their
00:23own course for California and vote on the maps.
00:27I'm here today to present, on behalf of Speaker Rivas, Assembly Constitutional Amendment
00:31Number 8, which, if enacted by the legislature, will go directly to a vote of the people in
00:36the November election.
00:38ACA 8 is intended to make possible the public vote that the Chair just described, to make
00:44it possible for the first time in California history, for California voters, to draw their
00:50own maps at the ballot box, not just the first in the country, but the first in California
00:55as well.
00:56Redistricting has a long history in the California Constitution.
01:00Since the 1920s, there have been ballot measures placed before the people of California to create
01:05independent commissions, to have redistricted them by judges.
01:09And over and over and over and over and over again from the 20s until the 2000s, the voters
01:13have overwhelmingly rejected them.
01:15It was in 2008, after rejecting independent commissions in 2005, 1989, 1984, 1994, repeatedly,
01:24by two-to-one margins, that the voters finally, by the slightest margin that you can imagine.
01:29I was one of them who voted yes on the Constitutional Amendment in 2008 that passed with 50.8% of
01:37the vote, the narrowest of margins in order to amend our Constitution to create the Independent
01:42redistricting commission.
01:43That commission, in the Constitution, is charged with protecting communities of interest, fundamentally,
01:52with hearing from the public during the process of redistricting, and incorporating their own
01:59views, not just big political views, but their own views about what their districts should
02:03be.
02:04So in a community like Rancho Cordova, just down the highway, where does Rancho Cordova
02:10belong in a district?
02:11When we talk about these districts, they are not just about big partisan issues.
02:15They are about which communities are able to work together to elect representatives that
02:19see them, that represent them.
02:21That's what the commission was set up to do.
02:23And so today we're asking, through ACA 8, for the opportunity for the voters to enact the
02:29maps that are in separate legislation, but that are referenced directly in this constitutional
02:34amendment and therefore the ballot measure, that would enact the maps that the commission
02:41itself would have enacted if it had been given the charge by the people of California to do
02:46what the chair just said.
02:48That is, if California voters came to the polls in November, or today, and said, we want maps
02:54that will fight back against Texas's efforts to rig the 2006 congressional election, to
03:00fight back against the efforts to undo the deep unpopularity that has been caused, not
03:07just by H.R.1 and the elimination of health care for millions of Californians, for the attacks
03:13on our public universities, but also the unbridled enforcement actions and disappearances and
03:20kidnappings on our streets from ICE.
03:22The voters, not just of California, but of America, are sick and tired of it.
03:25And they want change.
03:26That's what democracy is about.
03:28You can either change your policies, you can defend your policies.
03:31But one option that is not before us in a democracy is that you can change your voters,
03:35that you can change the rules.
03:37And so fighting back is absolutely essential, and Californians want to fight.
03:42They recognize that as the largest state in the union, as the largest economy in the country,
03:46that we're obligated to stand up and protect our democracy.
03:50And that's what this ACA will allow us to do.
03:53And it does that by putting the maps directly before the voters, and it does that by giving
03:59the voters the transparent option over these next several months to evaluate them and to vote.
04:04It also protects the independent commission.
04:08And that process will return.
04:10Just as it is in the Constitution today, nothing changes.
04:13The Constitution simply provides today that every 10 years after the census, the commission
04:18is convened and it draws our district lines for the Congress based on its testimony from
04:25thousands and thousands and thousands of Californians.
04:27Based on its own research, based on letters that are received from every big city and small
04:31town and Hamlet across the state.
04:35And they will continue to do that after the next census when we draw the new lines.
04:38But I want to emphasize also that the lines that would be enacted by the voters under ACA
04:458 are the lines that the commission would have drawn if it could.
04:49How can we say that?
04:50How do we know that?
04:51Well, the map drawing, which was done with our partners and the congressional delegates,
04:57was done by reviewing the testimony, the files, the letters, the deliberations by the commission
05:05just a couple of years ago that were heard from.
05:07I know voters in my district, even in my own city, who urged the commission to put West
05:11Sacramento in one place or another or voters in Winters who testified, please don't put us
05:15with Davis or please do put us with Davis, that all of that testimony on the ground from
05:20Californians about what it meant to them in redistricting has been incorporated and heard
05:25in this process.
05:28That this constitutional amendment will allow voters to enact maps that divide fewer communities,
05:33that protect the Voting Rights Act.
05:35That's the essential.
05:36That's what the Constitution calls for.
05:38This is the most constitutionally oriented redistricting that we've ever done in California,
05:43and it is absolutely necessary.
05:45We will return to the commission after that.
05:47The constitutional amendment here today before you guarantees that.
05:50And finally, I want to emphasize that the constitutional amendment assures that this is the right
05:55move for the right moment.
05:56It is triggered only if, only if, another state at the behest of the White House decides to try to
06:02cheat and rig the election.
06:04Texas is front and center.
06:06A couple of other states are looking at it as well.
06:09We have to be the last line of defense for our democracy in California.
06:14If those states stand down, then so will California.
06:19We didn't ask for this fight.
06:20They brought this fight to us, and California cannot stand down if other states are attempting to cheat
06:26and rig the election in 2006 to maintain Republican control of Congress.
06:32So I'm happy to answer any questions at the appropriate time, Madam Chair.
06:35We have two witnesses here with us.
06:38First is Jody Hicks from Planned Parenthood, and second is Sarah Sodwani.
06:45If the two support witnesses could approach, you each have three minutes.
06:50Begin when you're ready.
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