Voters in Irvine, California, approved Measure D on March 5, with 59.8% voting for the charter amendment. Beginning with the general election in November, Measure D will increase the size of the city council from five to seven members, including the mayor, and require the council members to be elected by district to four-year terms, instead of at large as they currently are. The mayor would still be elected at large to serve a two-year term.

The amendment staggers the district elections with Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 holding elections for their city council member on Nov. 5, 2024. Districts 5 and 6 will hold their first by-district general election in November 2026. Under Measure D, city council candidates must be legally registered voters and residents of their respective districts.

Measure D authorizes the city council to adjust the district boundaries following the federal decennial census to maintain a nearly equal population in each district.

Measure D was placed on the ballot by a 3-2 vote of the city council.

Mayor Farrah N. Khan and Councilmember Larry Agran and Mike Carroll submitted the following argument in favor of Measure D, “Measure D ensures that future City Council candidates will campaign among their neighbors and respond to their needs and concerns.  District elections will also enable candidates to run door-to-door grassroots campaigns without relying on hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from developers and other special interests.”

Cathy R. Schiff, a citizen of Irvine, submitted the following argument in opposition to Measure D, “Irvine need and should not adopt a by-district voting system because (a) there is no evidence it will improve minority representation; (b) other remedial alternatives, such as cumulative voting, limited voting, or ranked-choice voting, exist; and (c) by-district elections will yield negative consequences, including: self-segregation of populations; conflict among districts for resources; loss of collaboration among councilmembers; gerrymandering; and costs to redraw maps after each census.”

Irvine, which has a population of over 309,000, was the largest California city without city council district elections, according to LAist.

Soledad, California, is the only other locality that has decided on a local ballot measure that both increased the size of the council and changed elections from at-large to by-district in the past two election cycles in California. Soledad Measure P was also on the ballot on March 5, 2024. It was defeated with 89.1% of voters rejecting it. The population of Soledad was 24,190 as of 2022.

In 2024, Ballotpedia is covering local ballot measures that appear on the ballot for voters within the 100 largest cities in the U.S., within state capitals, and throughout California, as well as local ballot measures addressing electoral system changes and policing policies.

Additional reading: City elections in Irvine, California (2024)