In a move to reshape U.S. House districts and counter Texas Republicans, California Democrats are pushing for an emergency election. This has left county officials in a quandary, as they prepare for an election that still hasn’t been officially scheduled and might ultimately never take place.
Organizing an election for nearly 23 million registered voters in California’s 58 counties is a daunting and expensive task, even under normal circumstances. However, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and the predominantly Democratic Legislature have already missed important deadlines meant to provide local officials with sufficient time to arrange everything from multilingual mail ballots to staffing and securing venues for voting in person.
Democrats are exploring new political maps that might eliminate five Republican-held House seats in the typically liberal state, while strengthening Democratic incumbents in key battleground areas. Successful execution of their plan could leave Republicans with only four out of the state’s 52 House seats.
Those revised maps could be formally unveiled as soon as next week, in advance of a Nov. 4 election.
The state’s chief elections officer, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, met with local election officials to deliberate on preparing for the potential election. Although nothing has been confirmed, spokesperson Jim Patrick stated in an email that state staff should start getting ready for a possible special election.
There’s still uncertainty about whether the state will cover the expenses of a potential November election or if financially strained counties will have to bear the costs. For context, a 2021 special election—in which Newsom survived a recall—cost more than $200 million.
“We are going to face considerable time constraints,” said Bob Page, the Orange County Registrar of Voters, whose office is swiftly gearing up for the proposed election.
“We really can’t lose all or most of August by waiting” for the Legislature and the governor to act, Page added. “It’s a risk I have to take.”
Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan, who oversees elections in the county of nearly 10 million people, warned that “without upfront state funding and a clearly defined calendar, counties can face challenges meeting the demands of an election.”
“Ensuring voters are served accurately, securely, and equitably must remain the top priority, and that takes preparation,” Logan added in a statement.
Texas and California — the two most populous U.S. states — are the leading actors in a back-and-forth push to remake the balance of power in the U.S. House, kicked off when President Donald Trump called for Texas to redraw district lines with the GOP’s fragile House majority imperiled in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
The party that controls the White House is typically punished by voters in midterm elections.
“We are entitled to five more seats” in Texas, Trump insisted Tuesday in a CNBC interview. He pointed to California’s existing maps, which are drawn by an independent commission unlike the Texas maps crafted by a partisan legislature: “They did it to us.”
Other states — including New York, Florida and Indiana — could get into the power struggle that’s emerging as a national proxy war for control of Congress.
Newsom has said he would only move forward with the election if Texas succeeds in recasting its own House maps. The Texas push is on hold, after Democrats fled the state to prevent a legislative vote on the Republican redistricting plan.
In an online post, Page wrote that state rules require the governor to issue a proclamation calling a statewide election at least 148 days before the date of the election — that would have been June 9. As part of any action, the Legislature would have to waive that requirement this year.
He warned of a possible enforcement action by the U.S. Justice Department if ballots for members of the U.S. Military and overseas voters are not issued by Sept. 20.
Page said if he waited for the Legislature and the governor to formally call the election, “it would be too late for me to actually conduct the election.”
If it goes through, “We are going to make this work,” Page added.
