"The Empowering Democracy Act"
December 30 , 2005
The People of the State of California find and declare that:
(a) Our Legislature should be responsive to the demands of the citizens of the State of California, and not to the self-interest of individual legislators or the partisan interests of political parties.
(b) In the past, with legislators drawing their own political districts, self-interest and partisan gerrynlandering have resulted in uncompetitive districts, ideological polarization in our institutions of representative democracy, and a disconnect between the interests of the People of California and their elected representatives.
(c) We believe that the voters of this State, not politicians and bureaucrats, are best suited to adopt a common-sense, fair, non-partisan, and representative redistricting plan. An independent Citizens' Redistricting Con~mission drawn randomly from the voter rolls in this State, without partisan bias or personal conflict of interest, will empower average citizens to ensure fairness in the redistricting process and to restore the accountability of their elected officials.
(d) Counties and cities should not be split for partisan advantage or incumbent protection reasons, but should be kept together to the extent possible. Communities should be respected and not divided; the interests of the people, not politicians, should come first.
(e) We demand that our representative system of government be fair to all, open to public scrutiny, free of conflicts of interest, and dedicated to the principle that government derives its power from the consent of the governed. Therefore, the People of the State of California hereby adopt this "Redistricting Reform: The Empowering Democracy Act."
