Gov. Gavin Newsom promotes a plan for congressional redistricting that eventually became Prop 50 at the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles on Aug. 14.

It’s billed as an effort to “fight fire with fire” in the battle to save democracy from President Donald Trump.

You may have already received your ballot for Proposition 50, a referendum on whether the state should suspend its independent redistricting process and redraw congressional maps to favor Democrats in the 2026 midterm election.

The idea for Prop 50 came from Gov. Gavin Newsom, and he is its chief proponent. The governor argues that it is a response to gerrymandering at the behest of Trump by Texas and other states to benefit Republicans and allow the GOP to maintain its majority in the House of Representatives.

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“This is not the fight we chose, but it’s a fight we will fight,” Newsom told the Chronicle editorial board last week. Prop 50 “is temporary. It is transparent, and it is truly democratic.”

But opponents of Prop 50, even those who don’t support Trump’s assault on democratic norms, say circumventing the California Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission to gerrymander, even temporarily, is unethical and undermines the bipartisan redistricting that has created fair congressional maps.

“If you want to stop Trump or authoritarianism, you cannot do that by disenfranchising voters, which is an authoritarian tactic,” Cynthia Dai, a Democrat and former member of the redistricting commission who opposes Prop 50, told the editorial board. “That just means Trump wins by dragging everyone down to his level.”

Here at the Opinion section, Prop 50 has been a popular Letters to the Editor topic and was recently the subject of our new feature, Two Takes, which presents conflicting views on an issue.

The dueling arguments by former Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Lowenthal and former Republican state Sen. Sam Blakeslee also included an online poll. So far, 75% of Chronicle readers who participated favor Prop 50. Other scientific polls show that the race is closer.

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Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership.

Read more about our transparency and ethics policies

Our poll and comment section are still open. If you haven’t already, give the Two Takes a read and cast your vote. If you comment, I might feature your thoughts in our Letters to the Editor section.

Meanwhile, the editorial board has concluded its research on Prop 50. Our endorsement about whether or not to support the measure in the Nov. 4 special election will be published this weekend.

Curious about how the editorial board works? Shoot me an email at hmok@sfchronicle.com.

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