California appeals court rejects Schwarzenegger redistricting plan News
California appeals court rejects Schwarzenegger redistricting plan

[JURIST] The California Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District [official website] Tuesday rejected an appeal to have a measure backed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website] that would change the redistricting process in California included on November's special election ballot. The ballot measure, Proposition 77 [PDF text], is a voter initiative that seeks to take the redistricting responsibility away from a legislature dominated by Democrats. Though supporters of the plan submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, they used wording that differed in 17 places during the certification process. "The petitioners could easily have avoided or discovered and corrected the problem of different versions before the circulation of the petitions," Judge Coleman Blease wrote in a 2-1 decision [PDF text]. Schwarzenegger said he hoped the decision would be appealed to the state supreme court. Reuters has more.