The deadline for submitting applications to serve on the Citizen's Redistricting Commission has been extended four days -- to Feb.16 at 5 p.m.
To date, more than 19,900 Californians have applied to be one of the 14 members on an independent panel tasked with redrawing the state legislative and Board of Equalization districts after the 2010 census. The panel, established by the 2008 voter-approved Proposition 11, shifts that responsibility from legislators to citizens.
State Auditor Elaine Howle said in a statement that a "recent surge in applications leads me to believe that many more Californians who may want to take advantage of the opportunity are just now tuning into the opportunity."
The application process has come under fire by some critics who say the applicant pool lacks diversity.
Though Howle said a spike in applications in the wake of a statewide ad campaign had brought in "a broader cross-section of the public from all over the state," her spokeswoman said the deadline extension was purely a response to the peaked interest, not the demographic make-up of the applicant pool (You can see a breakdown of the applicants here).
Spokeswoman Margarita Fernández said the office saw applications increase from an average of 238 per day to 872 per day after the statewide radio campaign launched Jan. 28.
Fernández said with about $800,000 of a $1.3 million communications budget reserved for the radio ads, the office waited to go on the air until the last few weeks of the application period to "give it the last push."
"It worked," she said.
You can access the online guidelines and application here.
Latest posts:
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.