East Sacramento voters upset about council representation don’t have a right to recall
Some East Sacramento residents are upset about their representation on the city council and they have a right to be. But do they have the right to recall? In this case, they don’t.
The city council completed their redistricting and they are now implementing the new lines for the upcoming election. But the city is making a mistake about how redistricting works by forcing a new council member, Katie Valenzuela, upon East Sacramento residents who did not elect her.
Effectively, they are invalidating the votes of East Sacramento residents to the representative they elected, Jeff Harris. In Land Park, they are invalidating votes by telling those residents they have a new council member, Rick Jennings, who those residents also didn’t elect. This unnecessary dance is happening all over the city wherever lines have changed.
Redistricting can be confusing, but here is a simple way to think about it: When you elect someone to office you are electing them for a set term, and no administrative process to reorganize districts can undo the power of that vote. If you elect a city council member for four years, they will be your representative for all four years. If they are recalled or leave office, it is your voting right to elect their replacement for the remainder of their term.
The Sacramento redistricting process created new districts using a commission, and the law states that these lines are effective immediately, meaning that the city council doesn’t have to approve them before candidates can file for office, begin collecting signatures and start their campaigns. But nobody actually represents the new districts until there is an election.
Why not get a head start on the new districts, some might ask. In some cases, that may be fine. For instance, if the city council wants to allow council members to hold a movie night in a district other than their own, nobody is really harmed. In fact, it’s common for elected officials to invite the representatives that will be inheriting their districts to make connections and meet future constituents. You may see Rep. Doris Matsui spending more time in Elk Grove now that her district has moved there, or you may see Rep. Ami Bera at a Natomas event since that’s where his district shifted.
But this sense of camaraderie is soured when residents attempt to recall their new elected official post-redistricting.
The fact is that they can’t, and the law is very clear on this. When it comes to replacing or recalling, the “new” district has no legal standing, a fact that the California attorney general recently affirmed. It is only after the newly drawn district has elected someone to the office that they have the ability to recall or replace that person.
Elections have consequences, and redistricting has consequences, too. But the consequences of redistricting come when the voters elect representatives under those new lines — they are not foisted upon residents before they are even able to exercise their voting rights.
What the city is doing right now is wrong, and they need to change course. It may bruise some egos for the city to admit they mistakenly told council members to assume these new seats and created an environment for an unlawful recall to begin, but the permanent harm would come from allowing it to go forward.
East Sacramento residents who recoil at the policies supported by Councilwoman Valenzuela will have their opportunity to express that at the ballot box in due time. Until then, she is only accountable to the voters in the district that elected her.