On September 27, 2021, Governor Newsom signed into law SB 594 (Glazer). The measure requires all special districts to pass a board resolution adopting their updated redistricted electoral division maps by April 17, 2022 if their regular election is on the same day as the statewide November 2022 general election. If a special district's regular election is on another day, the deadline will be 180 days prior to that election.
Prior to the passage of SB 594, certain special districts with "by-district" elections, as opposed to those with "at-large" elections, faced a November 1, 2021 deadline to adopt their re-districted maps despite the months-long delay in the necessary U.S. Census data. For example, fire protection, recreation and park, and community services districts faced this deadline. Most other special districts had a map adoption date of not later than 180 days prior to their next general election.
Earlier in the year, CSDA supported amendments to SB 594 (Glazer) to address the truncated timeline for those districts with a November 1, 2021 redistricted electoral division map adoption date in light of the United States Census being delayed. It was successfully amended to push the November 1, 2021 deadline back five and a half months to April 17, 2022. However, in response to the concerns of county registrars, the new deadline applies to all special districts with a regular election that coincides with the November 8, 2022 statewide general election. Therefore, under SB 594, some special district types will be required to adopt their updated electoral divisions as many as 25 days sooner than existing law to align with other local agencies.
SB 594 is an urgency measure and therefore took effect immediately upon signature of the Governor. Furthermore, SB 594 is intended to address the unique circumstances of the pandemic-delayed 2020 United States Census. Accordingly, the bill includes a January 1, 2023 sunset date and would not apply to elections and map-making deadlines beyond 2022. CSDA will be communicating additional details on this topic in the coming weeks.
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