Frequently Asked Questions

Districting is the establishment of boundaries for election districts. It determines who can run and who can vote in each district. Candidates and voters must live within their respective election districts. This does not impact city services to the public. The only change the districting process creates is how City Council Members are elected. 

Districting only happens once. After City Council boundaries are established, the City will conduct redistrictings to balance the district populations following the results of each decennial census, with the next U.S. Census collection being 2030. This ensures that each elected official represents about the same number of constituents. All district lines must be reviewed to meet strict requirements for population equality and voting rights protections in accordance with the Federal Voting Rights Act and the California Elections Code.

Districting determines which neighborhoods and communities are grouped together into a district for purposes of electing a City Council member. The City Council is seeking input on the district voting map for the City of Gilroy. Community members have an opportunity to share with the City Council how they think district boundaries should be drawn to best represent their community.

Many factors may be considered, but population equality is the most important. Other factors include:

• Topography: natural barriers, boundaries or landmarks.
• Geography: major streets and neighborhood blocks.
• Cohesiveness: contiguity, integrity and compactness of the area.
• Communities of interest: established neighborhoods, groups with cultural bonds, common issues or concerns, voting precincts or other types of divisions.

Community input and Census data are used to create districts. The City hired professional demographer Redistricting Partners to help create proposed district boundaries. The community will soon have access to ‘public mapping tool kits’ to provide feedback on how districts could be drawn. The City’s hired demographer will propose maps that ensure compliance with the Federal Voting Rights Act and the California Voting Rights Act requirements. The City Council will then adopt a final district map by ordinance.

A community of interest is a “contiguous population that shares common social and economic interests that should be included within a single district for purposes of its effective and fair representation.” They are the overlapping sets of neighborhoods, networks, and groups that share interests, views, cultures, histories, languages, and values and whose boundaries can be identified on a map. The following are examples of what can be considered communities of interest:

• Shared interests in schools, housing, community safety, transit, health conditions, land use, environmental conditions, and/or other issues.
• Common social and civic networks, including churches, mosques, temples, homeowner associations, and community centers, and shared use of community spaces, like parks and shopping centers.
• Racial and ethnic compositions, cultural identities, and households that predominantly speak a language other than English.
• Similar socio-economic status, including but not limited to income, home-ownership, and education levels.
• Shared political boundary lines from other jurisdictions, such as school districts, community college districts, and water districts.

No. Three Council Members will be elected in 2026, and the remaining four will be elected in the next cycle two years later. 

The order of the district elections is determined by the City Council.

No. A candidate must live within the district they wish to represent.

If only one candidate runs, that individual will be considered elected to the City Council. If no candidates run for a seat in a district, the situation will be handled in the same way as a vacancy. This will be addressed according to the California Elections Code.

No. The City is required to review and adjust the district lines following each census. We will next review the district maps in 2031 and make changes based on the data received in the census.

In districting, we are guided and controlled by the dictates of the California Voting Rights Act and the Federal Voting Rights Act.  As demonstrated at our public hearings, the public workshops, and community-generated submissions, four majority-minority districts can be created while fulfilling the state's FAIR MAPS Act requirements of creating contiguous, compact and balanced districts, preserving communities of interest, and utilizing easily understood boundaries. The Federal Voting Rights Act basically requires the creation of majority-minority districts where feasible. Thus, creating four such districts makes the City less vulnerable to legal challenge.