How will California’s redistricting measure impact special elections in Santa Clara, Alameda counties?

As California voters prepare to cast their ballots in a high-profile November special election, the partisan redistricting measure at the center of it could drive a surge in voter turnout for otherwise low-profile local races and issues.

In the most consequential statewide special election since Republicans tried to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021, voters this fall will decide whether to replace the current congressional district maps drawn by an independent redistricting commission with a gerrymandered plan that aims to flip up to five U.S. House seats from red to blue in next year’s midterms. The initiative, now known as Proposition 50, was triggered by an effort from Texas Republicans to increase the GOP’s slim majority in Congress in 2026.

But as Newsom and his allies plotted how