Claremont McKenna Study Finds District-Based Elections Increasing in CA

Southern California cities are increasingly shifting from at-large to district-based city council election systems, according to a report released Tuesday by Claremont McKenna College.

The report shows how the shift has been driven by the California Voting Rights Act of 2002, which was designed to empower Latinos and other minority groups to challenge at-large election systems that may dilute their voting strength.

A district-based election system is one in which the city is divided into geographic districts where voters in each district select one council member who resides in that district to represent them. An at-large election is one that represents an entire jurisdiction — like a city or town — and gets voted on by everyone in that city or town. In other words, the candidates who get the most votes from the entire city win in an at-large election.

Over the past two decades, a majority of Southern California cities have converted from at-large to by-district electoral systems. Among the 20 most populous cities in Southern California, only Lancaster continues to use at-large elections, the study found.





https://mynewsla.com/government/2025/04/22/claremont-study-district-based-elections-increasing-across-state/