County Redistricting proposal slammed as incoherent, divisive, political

County Supervisors, on the heels of their roundly-ridiculed Bonuspalooza giveaway, are considering a redistricting plan (euphemistically entitled "Unity Plan") that would dissect and mangle south county neighborhoods and communities of interest, in clear violation of redistricting law and guidelines. The Silicon Valley Business PAC voices its disapproval in a letter to the County Supes.

The Silicon Valley Business PAC would like to make a request about the redistricting options. We would like to request that the option of the “yellow” map, also known as the Unity Map, not be taken into consideration. This map would obviously not be unifying as it has the least understandable boundaries because of its design. The design flaws noticed in this map are going to split communities and that is not the intent of redistricting and that should not be the intent of unity.

There are many ways to cut these maps, but one that is of high importance, as seemingly forgotten with this map, is clear lines. A map like this will create division among neighbors as they will be voting on different districts east to west. Our understanding is that this map was created by special interests. If that is so, this is clearly gerrymandering which should have the map stricken from any conversation and consideration. If we start to cut boundaries to push a specific political agenda, we have crossed lines.

Most commonly, the idea of redistricting is to make slight adjustments to a current boundaries. When there is a large increase or decrease of the population then lines are moved more significantly. Santa Clara County has not had significant increase in movement, so drastic rewriting of the lines are not warranted.

Silicon Valley Business PAC Board of Directors

For more on the Business PAC, read here.

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