California and the Laws that Divide

Part 4--“Representation” Without Representation

 

Californians have by far the worst ratio of legislative representation per capita of any state. In fact, it is so poor that it can legitimately be argued Californians have lawmakers, but in reality, no representatives answerable to their constituents.

 

In 1862, the size of the California legislature was capped at 80 Assembly Members and 40 Senators.

 

The population at that time was 380,000.

 

  • Each Senator represented 9,500 individuals, roughly only half of whom were of voting age.

 

  • Each Assembly Member represented approximately 4,750, or fewer than 2,400 adults.

 

Today’s population is upwards of 40 million.

 

  • Each Assembly Representative now decides the fate of 500,000 individuals.

 

  • Each Senator determines the quality of life of ONE MILLION Californians.

 

To make matters worse, until 1964, the apportionment of Senators had been one per county, with the very smallest counties combined logically to groupings of like populations. Patterned after the federal two-Senators-per-state-regardless-of-size model, populations with very diverse needs could still have an equal voice within California through the one-per-county model.

 

But in 1964, the “rules” changed, and senatorial apportionment is now assigned by population only, with district lines being gerrymandered and un-like populations combined beyond all sense of fairness.

 

That cannot be defined as legitimate representation

by any stretch of the word.

 

An added consequence is that as long as the population of the state remained relatively low, even people of modest means could successfully campaign for office, and even knock on every door in their district to communicate with perspective constituents.

 

Those who truly desired to be public servants and were motivated to preserve the general welfare were able to earn votes.

 

Now, our Representatives’ positions are bought rather than elected.

 

With the need to win the support of such large numbers of voters across a wide and diverse geography, only extremely wealthy or well-connected individuals who can pay for the demands of such a campaign need apply.

 

The probability that our elected officials are motivated by a desire to serve the PEOPLE and protect our liberties and quality of life is greatly reduced.

 

Nevertheless, there are still ways for assertive voters to capture their legislators’ attention, and a loud public voice still has influence.

 

The best ways to stay a bad legislative idea, or prop up a good one are:

 

  1. Submit a letter directly to the author(s) of a bill.

 

  1. Submit a letter to the first committee to hear the bill. For election bills, that would be the California State Assembly Committee on Elections for Assembly bills (ABs) and the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee for Senate bills (SBs).

    Note: Letters must be submitted a week prior to the committee hearing date to be included in the Bill Analysis.

 

Once you have an account:

 

 

 

Those letters remain in the file for those bills, and will pass to any other committee assigned to hear the bill prior to the floor vote.

 

  1. Contact Committee Members directly in advance of when the Committee will hear the bill.

 

Unfortunately, legislators will not receive email communications from non-constituents, so unless your representative is on the committee in question, the only way to directly communicate is by phone or snail-mail letter, both of which may be disregarded if you are not a constituent.

 

Go to the following https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/ NOW, write down the information, and then put your representatives’ names into your favorite search engine to find their website. Their committee assignments should be listed there.

 

It is vital to know who our Assembly and Senate representatives are,

and on which committees they serve!

 

Knowing which bills are assigned to your representatives’ committees allows you to have a direct voice to add to your letters submitted to the Committees through the portals.

 

Anyone wanting to speak to a particular bill before a committee, or even officially register a support or oppose position in front of the committee, is obliged to be in the room, in the Capitol.

 

  • The two most populous counties in California are 350-500+ miles from Sacramento.

 

  • The far northern counties are equally as far, with road travel much more challenging in the mountainous areas.

 

Citizens wishing to engage in self-governance and direct the members of various committees to their arguments are restricted by geographical, monetary and time concerns.

 

Therefore, virtually all those attending and speaking at the meetings are paid lobbyists representing well-funded and heavily self-serving organizations.

 

The concerns of We the People generally are not on their radar.

 

In the societal darkness created by the COVID hysteria there was at least one bright light that emerged in the darkness of the California Legislative process.

 

During the shutdown, since there was no public admittance to Capitol goings-on, a phone access was established, so that any citizen from anywhere could call in, listen to the proceedings, and have an opportunity to weigh in with an actual voice.

 

For the first time, ALL Californians had an opportunity

to voice an opinion during the committee process.

 

EIPCa supporters took great advantage of those opportunities to put public pressure on legislators.

 

During one very consequential hearing, over 900 of you called in. And our voice was heard, ensuring that over 40,000 registrants on the inactive list (most of whom are either deceased or moved out of state) would not be mailed a ballot in 2020 and beyond!!

 

This year, the State declaration of Emergency for COVID was finally withdrawn, and sadly, things have gone back to “normal” in our legislature. Once again, you have to be there to have a voice.

 

Until EIPCa’s federal lawsuit pulls the rug out from under 25 years of unconstitutional election laws foisted upon the citizens of California,

 

We must unite to fight the passage of further such assaults

on our right to self-govern.

 

  • Your position letters submitted to the portals, and
  • your well-timed letters, cards, emails and
  • phone calls to your own representatives before committee votes
    and before floor votes are even more vital now!

 

They are the only voice you have. Use it!!

 

EIPCa Alerts and links to our legislative position letters will continue to give you talking points and cues for how and when to weigh in.

 

Let’s do this!!



Please continue to support EIPCa as the lawsuit progresses.

pdf of article 
<

EIPCa is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) charity. Contributions are tax deductible.
Part 4--“Representation” Without Representation    
©Election Integrity Project®California, Inc. copyrighted 2024