Add to ORKGOn November 8, 2008, a historic presidential election drove voter participation to unusually high levels. Californians cast more than 13.5 million votes for president. Much farther down their ballot, a smaller number of voters (just short of 12 million) voted on Prop 11, also known as the Voters First Act. By a margin of less than 1 percent, voters transformed the way the state went about drawing districts for state offices. Instead of the state legislature and governor (and at times, the courts), an independent citizen commission -- the California Citizens Redistricting Commission -- would now accomplish the task. With little notice in the tidal wave of the presidential race, Californians had made a major change to their state's constituti...