Griffin v. Board of Supervisors

GIBSON, C. J.

Petitioner, an elector of the 5th Supervisorial District of Monterey County, acting on behalf of all such electors, seeks a writ of mandate to compel the board of supervisors to reapportion the supervisorial districts of Monterey County so as to make them nearly equal in number of electors. He contends that the board has arbitrarily and capriciously refused to redistriet the county and has thereby discriminated against the voters of the 5th district.

In the main the facts are undisputed. The county was dis

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trieted in 1884 pursuant to section 16 of the Act to Establish a Uniform System of County and Township Government (Stats. 1883, ch. 75) which required the districts to be “as nearly equal in population as may be.” The districting ordinance was amended in 1886 and has since remained unchanged. There are five districts, each of which elects one supervisor. When the districts were established the difference in number of electors between the most populous and the least populous districts was 1

x/%

to l.

1

However, subsequent changes in population have caused a much greater disparity. In 1962 the number of registered voters in the county was 68,-565. Thirty-four thousand and fifty-nine voters, or approximately 50 per cent, resided in the 5th district, which includes the Monterey Peninsula; 22,687 voters, or 33 per cent, resided in the 2d district, which included Salinas; 5,677 voters, or a little over 8 per cent, resided in the 1st district; 5,204 voters, or a little less than 8 per cent, resided in the 3d district; and 938 voters, or less than 1% per cent, resided the 4th district. Three supervisors, a majority of the board, are thus elected by approximately 17 per cent of the voters.

In 1956 an initiative ordinance altering the boundaries of the districts was rejected by the voters. Pursuant to section 25009 of the Government Code, enacted in 1961, a redistrieting committee was appointed in Monterey County, and in August 1962 a majority of the. committee, consisting of the members from the three districts having the least population, advised against redistrieting prior to the 1970 census.