Sacramento-area voters showed low interest in Prop. 50 despite high stakes
Turnout lagged in the Sacramento region for Proposition 50, the California redistricting measure that passed last month with 64.4% voter approval, according to updated ballot data from Secretary of State Shirley Weber’s office.
Unofficial election results and ballot data from the Nov. 4 race highlighted how Gov. Gavin Newsom, the initiative’s chief proponent, benefited from lower turnout. Both sides of the initiative framed it as a referendum on Democrats’ chances of retaking Congress in the 2026 midterms amid discontent with President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda and tariffs.
Around 11.6 million people — or 50.1% of the state’s 23 million registered voters — cast a ballot, lagging behind higher-profile races like the 2021 recall election and 2024 presidential election. Still, the Nov. 4 race ranked as one of the most expensive in state history and has inspired multiple lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. On Friday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee asked the courts to dismiss a Prop. 50 challenge from the Department of Justice after the Supreme Court allowed a new redistricting map in Texas to stand that would likely hands five more House seats to Republicans.
In Sacramento County, 55.57% of the area’s 915,698 registered voters, or 505,346 people, cast a ballot for Prop. 50, a nearly 20% drop from the previous election. In neighboring Yolo County, the drop-off was roughly the same, with only about 49%, or 74,184 people, of the county’s 123,296 registered voters casting a ballot. The previous year, 69% of registered voters cast a ballot.
In conservative-leaning Placer and El Dorado County, the drop-off was similar, though turnout remained higher than in Yolo and Sacramento. In El Dorado, 91,488 people, or 65.2% of registered voters, cast a ballot — a 19% dropoff from last year, where 84% of those eligible voted. In Placer, 188,038 people voted, for a total of 63% of eligible voters. In 2024, 234,871 ballots were cast, or 82.13% of all eligible voters.
Paul Mitchell, the chief architect who redrew the districts at Newsom’s request, said the data vindicated his earlier prediction that turnout would not match the energy around previous contests, like Trump’s matchup with former Vice President Kamala Harris, or the COVID-era discontent that dominated the failed 2021 recall election.
“There’s nothing in the (Nov. 4) returns that are striking,” he said. “A lot of voters dismissed it (the initiative) as not for them, because they don’t see themselves as super partisan. In a normal ballot measure, if you’re confused, you’re going to leave it blank while you vote for president or governor. In this case, there was nothing else on the ballot.”
County elections officials were required to report final certified results to the Secretary of State by the end of Friday, the official canvass deadline. Ballots continued to be counted after Election Day to allow time for signature cures and late-arriving mail ballots.
As of Friday afternoon, all counties had report that they had completed their counting, according to Secretary of State data.
Weber’s office has another week to certify the results. There are 15,600 ballots that still need to be “cured,” or corrected for minor mistakes, like missing signatures.
This story was originally published December 5, 2025 at 12:55 PM.
