District Elections

Claremont District Elections Process

On February 26, 2019 the City Council adopted a district election ordinance that transitions the City from at-large elections to by-district elections starting in November of 2020. Councilmembers will be elected by the voters in the district in which they live every four years.

The decision to transition was prompted by a threat of litigation under the California Voter Rights Act (CVRA). Cities all over California are moving to districts to avoid costly lawsuits, regardless of population size and demographics. The threshold to prove racially polarized voting is extremely low and no city has won a CVRA lawsuit.

The City held five public hearings and four weekend workshops to obtain community input on how to draw the boundary maps. Thirty-one maps were submitted by the community. The maps and community feedback were divided, with some residents favoring vertical districts to retain an at-large feel and others preferring regional maps that kept neighborhoods together. The Council took comments on the maps and narrowed it down to a handful of maps for community review. After listening to residents' comments, the Council chose Map 124a that blends a southern district with four vertical districts north of Arrow Highway. Keeping the southern section as one District and dividing Pilgrim Place were decisions based on requests by community members in those areas. The Colleges were also split among districts because they have very few Claremont voters despite a high population.

In November 2020, voters in Districts 1 and 5 selected a Councilmember for their respective district. Following the 2020 Census, the City Council and community engaged in the public redistricting process to utilize the 2020 census data to make adjustments to district boundaries based upon population changes and an updated map will be approved by the City Council. A new map was selected. In November 2022, voters in Districts 2, 3, and 4 selected one Councilmember from each respective district and in November 2024 voters selected a Councilmember for Districts 1 and 5.

Current District Map(PDF, 760KB)

For information on the transition to district elections, please contact the City Clerk's Office at (909) 399-5461 or (909) 399-5463. More information on Claremont Municipal Elections.