San Diego County voters showed stronger support for the California redistricting measure touted by Democrats in last month’s special election than they did for Democratic candidates in previous elections. Several San Diego neighborhoods that supported Kamala Harris for president last year voted by higher margins for the Proposition 50 redistricting measure, and neighborhoods that swung for President Donald Trump last year showed comparatively less enthusiasm for opposing Prop. 50. Prop. 50 temporarily redraws California’s congressional districts to favor Democrats in elections from 2026 through 2030. The measure was drawn up as a response to Republican efforts in Texas and elsewhere, encouraged by Trump, to redraw congressional lines and help his party keep control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections. Voters did not decide on Prop. 50 exclusively based on political party affiliation — but many still viewed the election as a proxy of Democratic support, about a year into Trump’s term. Eric McGhee, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said the results suggest a rebound in Democratic support from last year’s presidential election, particularly among young, Latino and Asian American voters. They also reflect growing dissatisfaction with Trump. How San Diego County voted on Prop. 50 Overall, 61% of San Diego County voters supported the redistricting measure, according to results certified by the San Diego County Registrar of Voters last week. That’s slightly lower than the statewide 64% who voted in favor of the measure, according to preliminary statewide results that have not yet been certified. But it’s also a wider margin of support than the 57% of county voters who voted for Harris last year, and more than the 57% of county voters who rejected a recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2021 special election. At the same time, a smaller share of voters turned out this fall than in 2021 and 2024. It’s not surprising to see a sag in support for the political party of the president around the midpoint of their term, McGhee said, and that’s what the Prop. 50 results show. “It often comes down to not a comparison of the two parties, but more an evaluation of the president,” he said. San Diego County communities generally voted along party lines and in line with how they voted in last year’s presidential election. But most neighborhoods supported Prop. 50 with wider margins than they supported Harris last year and rejected it with thinner margins than they supported Trump, a San Diego Union-Tribune analysis of election results shows. Hillcrest, North Park, Golden Hill, South Park and southeastern San Diego neighborhoods were the top supporters of Prop. 50, and all showed higher margins of support for Prop. 50 than they did for Harris last year. Meanwhile, the margins by which voters rejected Prop. 50 were lower than their margins to elect Trump last year — in both neighborhoods that lean Democratic and those that lean Republican. El Cajon, Camp Pendleton and several unincorporated North and East County communities that supported Trump last year all saw lower margins of opposition to Prop. 50 this year. But in other areas that supported Trump such as Rancho Santa Fe, Julian and San Pasqual Valley — as well as areas that supported Harris, including Coronado, La Jolla and Del Mar — people voted “no” on Prop. 50 by wider margins than they had voted to elect Trump. How San Diego County voted on Prop. 50 Countywide turnout in the special election was 52% — a little bit higher than the statewide 50%. Turnout last month was significantly lower than it was for last year’s presidential election, when 76% of registered voters cast a ballot, and for the 2021 Newsom recall election, when 60% did. But it is more comparable to the 2022 gubernatorial election, when turnout was 54%. Several neighborhoods in the South Bay region had low turnout rates of below 40%, including southeastern San Diego, Lincoln Acres, San Ysidro, Chollas Park, National City, Otay and Nestor. Meanwhile, neighborhoods with the highest turnout rates included the coastal North County communities of Solana Beach, Del Mar and Lomas Santa Fe, inland North County communities like Gopher Canyon and Lake San Marcos and some central San Diego neighborhoods such as Mission Hills, University Heights and Hillcrest. ...read more read less