Congressional districts for the US House of Representatives are redrawn after every census that takes place every decade. The next census is due in 2030. Each state has its own rules for how to draw the maps but in many states, especially those controlled by Republicans, the lines are drawn in strange ways just so that it gives a big advantage to their party. As a result, the percentage of Republicans who are elected to Congress from each state well exceed the percentage of votes that they get.

But Republicans are jittery that their current razor-thin majority in Congress will be lost in the 2026 mid-term elections, so states like Texas and elsewhere abruptly decided to redraw their maps midway through the decade to give Republicans even more seats. In retaliation, California governor Gavin Newsom decided to do the same thing in California to offset the Texas move. Currently the state’s districts are drawn by an independent commission so as to have fairness.

As a result, on election day November 4th, California voters will vote Proposition 50, a referendum that seeks to do away with the existing congressional district maps and replace it with a new one that favors Democrats but will be in effect only until the next census in 2030 requires the drawing of new maps. The referendum asks voters to essentially take a regressive step and approve a gerrymandered map that favors Democrats.

While many Democrats do not like this change, they feel it is necessary to fight fire with fire, that if Republicans are going to rig elections in states where they are the majority, Democrats should do the same.

The Guardian asked voters how they felt about California’s Proposition 50. While many expressed distaste, or outright disgust, with gerrymandering – the practice of redrawing congressional seats to guarantee representation for one party – many said they felt the new proposal was the only way to ensure fair representation in Congress.

“I have always been happy about California’s lack of gerrymandering and I hope that one day, every state will have independent commissions to create congressional districts,” Mars Moro, 60, an accountant at a California biotech company reliant on endangered grants from the National Institutes of Health, wrote. “But right now, with Trump’s attempt to rig the midterms in 2026, I believe that Newsom is doing the right thing. Our republic hangs in the balance and we must do everything we can to prevent a full autocratic takeover.”

Tara Noone, a psychotherapist from Albany, said while she generally thinks gerrymandering is “appalling”, it would be “foolish not to redistrict when there is a direct request from the White House and direct effort in red states to redistrict in order to give the GOP more seats in the House”.

“When the effort to tilt elections for a one-party permanent majority is transparent, explicit and unapologetic, we must act,” Noone, who has a “Yes on 50” sign in her yard, wrote. “Not just for ourselves but for all those voters in Texas who have been completely disenfranchised by a gerrymandering that neutralizes their votes. I have to hold my nose to vote for this one, but I absolutely will vote for it and feel safe doing so given the sunset provision.”

Meghan Diggins agreed with the sense of displeasure at being at this political juncture, but said she felt it was the “right thing to do considering that in my review, it certainly seems like Donald Trump is trying to take over the country”.

“I disagree with almost every single thing the man has done since he sat down at the Oval Office again,” Diggins, 59, said. “Even though I think gerrymandering is completely wrong and it’s ridiculous it’s not been stopped prior to now, it’s the only way to fight back for the gerrymandering he is pushing in red states.”

This seems like a political version of Gresham’s Law that says that “bad money drives out good”.

For example, if there are two coins in circulation containing metal of different value, which are accepted by law as having similar face value, the more valuable coin based on the inherent value of its component metals will gradually disappear from circulation.

In this context, thanks to the blatant efforts by Republican controlled states to gerrymander well beyond the normal levels of doing so, even those states (like California) that had sought to move away from that unsavory practice are also doing so, if only temporarily.

I agree with the people quoted in the article and have already voted ‘Yes’ on the referendum, despite my disapproval of gerrymandering in general. When it comes to dealing with Trump and the Republicans, you cannot take the high road because they have absolutely no scruples. You have to find ways to nullify their destruction of the country and the first step is to take back the majority in the House of Representatives.

What I would love to see is voters being so fed up with how bad Trump and the Republicans are, with all their hateful racism, homophobia, misogyny, and anti-semitism, and their applalling abuse of federal legal power, that despite the gerrymandering, those Republican states still lose seats. Apart from his awful policies, Trump is so immature that any sensible adult should be repulsed that a president could act in that way. Now he has got enamored with the possibilities posed by AI-generated images and videos. On his Truth Social account he has posed a video of Barack Obama being arrested by FBI agents while he looks on. In others, he is shown flying a fighter jet and dumping excrement on protestors. It is astoundingly childish.

If the Republicans suffer major losses even in red states that they gerrymandered, that would really send a message. But that is too much to hope for. I fear that Republicans are now a Trump cult and too locked into their tribal mentality and will vote for their party however bad they get. Many will even delight in such puerile behavior because they think it ‘owns the libs’. The best that can be hoped for is that some people who have voted for Republicans in the past and may have been thinking of doing so again may decide to not vote all. Abandoning their tribal loyalty and voting for Democrats may be too big a step for them to take. But I doubt that there will be enough of such people to significantly sway the results.