Palm Desert group plans rally urging city to move to five voting districts

Sherry Barkas, Palm Springs Desert Sun
·2 min read
This map outlines the boundaries for Palm Desert's new two-district voting system. District 1, the "Civic Center core" district, will elect one representative every four years and represents about 20% of the population. The outlying district represents 80% of the city's population and will have four representatives on the council, two elected every two years.

A citizens group plans to urge the City of Palm Desert to move from two to five voting districts during a rally on Thursday, ahead of a planned community workshop for redistricting.

“Drive4Five,” a non-partisan group of residents, plans to gather at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in front of the Palm Desert Community Center, at 43-900 San Pablo Ave., next to the YMCA building on the Civic Center campus.

The rally is being held before a 6 p.m. community workshop for drawing new boundaries for the two existing voting districts.

Members of Drive4Five believe the citizens of Palm Desert would better represented with five districts rather than with the present two district system, group member Charlie Ara said in an email announcing the rally.

Interested Palm Desert residents are invited to join the rally, he said.

The city moved to a two-district system with the 2020 election as part of a settlement agreement with two Palm Desert women who sued the city in 2019, saying the at-large voting system went against the mandates of the California Voting Rights Act.

The act requires that cities switch to districts, grouping “communities of interest” to ensure that protected minorities have a better chance for representation.

District 1, called the “Civic Center Core District,” is the smaller of Palm Desert’s two districts, currently encompassing about 18.1% of the city’s current population of 51,317.

District 1 has one representative elected every four years, while the larger District 2 has four representatives elected at-large for four-year terms, with elections staggered every two years.

One of the plaintiffs, Karina Quintanilla, now serves as the council representative for District 1. She was elected to her first four-year term in November 2020.

The community workshop is open for to all Palm Desert residents and also will be streamed live via Zoom. The Zoom link can be found on the city's website, engagepalmdesert.com/2022-redistricting, in the schedule of meetings in the middle of the page.

Desert Sun reporter Sherry Barkas covers the cities of La Quinta, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert. She can be reached at sherry.barkas@thedesertsun.com. Follow her on Twitter @TDSsherryBarkas

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Desert group plans rally in support of five voting districts