Final District Elections Map

The Folsom City Council completed the process to transition to a by-district election system on March 22, 2022, by adopting Ordinance No. 1324. The Ordinance establishes five City Council districts. View a PDF of the final map or explore the new districts in an interactive map.

Election Schedule

• Members of the City Council from Council Districts 1, 3, and 5 will be elected on a by-district basis beginning with the General Municipal Election in November 2022.
• Members of the City Council from Council Districts 2 and 4 will be elected on a by-district basis beginning with the General Municipal Election in November 2024.  

Note: Council members who were elected prior to the transition to district elections will retain their seats as at-large Councilmembers until their term expires.

Background

The Folsom City Council went through a robust community-engagement process in 2021 to transition to by-district elections. Residents will continue to be represented by the entire City Council. However, there are two primary changes in by-district City Council elections:

1. Voters will only vote for one Councilmember, instead of all five.
2. Future Councilmembers must live in the district they represent.

For historical information about the transition process, visit the Background on Transition to By-District Elections web page.

What Prompted the Change to District Elections?

In February 2020, the city received a petition from the Folsom Area Democratic Club and numerous Folsom residents to begin the process to change City Council elections from at-large to by-district. In October 2020, the city received a demand letter from attorney Scott Rafferty, representing Neighborhood Elections Now, the Bay Area Voting Rights Initiative, the Folsom Area Democratic Club, and a number of registered voters in Folsom having legal standing to sue the city under the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA), which is a prerequisite under the CVRA prior to filing a lawsuit. On January 20, 2021, the City of Folsom was served with a CVRA lawsuit filed by the petitioners’ attorney representing Hari Shetty, Kavita Sood, and Neighborhood Elections Now.

Public agencies can be sued under the CVRA when their at-large election system is alleged to have impaired the ability of a protected class to elect candidates of their choice or their ability to influence the outcome of an election. “Protected class” is defined in the CVRA as a class of voters who are members of a race, color, or language minority group. The threshold for plaintiffs to win a CVRA lawsuit is extremely low; no proof of discriminatory intent or past history of discrimination is necessary for a plaintiff to prevail. Thus far, no public agency has successfully defended a CVRA lawsuit, even after spending millions of their taxpayer dollars defending the lawsuit. Folsom is among hundreds of cities, special districts, and school districts throughout the state to receive CVRA demand letters. Under the CVRA, the city has an opportunity to voluntarily transition to by-district elections and avoid a costly lawsuit.

The city underwent a months-long community engagement initiative to create the new By-District Elections Map, which was officially adopted on March 22, 2022.