FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 12, 2026

Proposed Initiative Enters Circulation: Prohibits Use After 2026 Of Temporary Congressional District Maps Adopted by Voters In 2025 In Response to Texas’ Partisan Redistricting. Initiative Constitutional Amendment.

Sacramento, Calif. – California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber, Ph.D., announced that the proponent of a new initiative was cleared to begin collecting petition signatures on January 12, 2026.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent(s) and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides a calendar of deadlines to the proponent(s) and to county elections officials. The Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

PROHIBITS USE AFTER 2026 OF TEMPORARY CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT MAPS ADOPTED BY VOTERS IN 2025 IN RESPONSE TO TEXAS’ PARTISAN REDISTRICTING. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. In 2025, in response to Texas’ mid-decade partisan redistricting, voters passed Proposition 50 to require the temporary use of new congressional district maps in California’s congressional elections through 2030. This measure would instead allow use of the Proposition 50 voter-approved maps only in the 2026 congressional election, and would require for the 2028 and 2030 congressional elections the use of the maps adopted in 2021 by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: Likely minimal one-time costs to counties of less than a few hundred thousand dollars statewide to revert back to the Commission’s 2021 Congressional maps starting in 2028 until the Commission establishes new maps following the 2030 census. (25-0031.)

The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 2008 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 25-0031.

The proponent of the measure, James V. Lacy, must collect signatures of 874,641 registered voters (eight percent of the total votes cast for governor in the November 2022 general election) in order for the measure to become eligible for the ballot. The proponent has 180 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be submitted to county elections officials no later than July 13, 2026. The address for the proponent is c/o Bradley W. Hertz, Esq., Law Offices of Bradley W. Hertz, 22815 Ventura Boulevard #405, Los Angeles, CA 91364. The proponent may also be contacted at (818) 593-2949 and brad@bradleyhertzlaw.com.

###