Bill Mundell, Chairman Californians for Fair Redistricting, Delivers on His Promise to Bring the People's Petitions Calling for Fair Elections!

NORWALK, Calif. -- Californians for Fair Redistricting Chairman Bill Mundell rolled up his sleeves and pulled dozens of boxes with the signatures of LA county voters out of the back of a U-haul truck at the LA County Recorder's office this morning.

"The people have spoken," Mundell announced as he urged Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to call a special election to let the people vote on redistricting this November. Mundell and clerks from the County Registrar's office loaded 212,000 signatures onto a push cart and took them up the ramp and to the third floor of the office building where they will be verified and counted.

"This has been a great team effort. Collectively we have gathered nearly one million signatures," Mundell said in a news conference on the steps of the County office building. "The signatures should be more than enough to qualify for a ballot initiative this fall."

The Los Angeles businessman who is chairman and CEO of Vidyah, Inc., a leading educational technology company, has campaigned throughout the state collecting the signatures calling for redistricting reform this year. Mundell says he believes the Governor will call the special election to create fairness in the way legislative and congressional districts are drawn in California. "The system is broken. Millions of Californians have been disenfranchised by the redistricting of 2001, and they must have fair representation now!"

Mundell is leading a bi-partisan effort to support fair redistricting. "I am a lifelong Republican, but this is not a partisan issue," Mundell explains. "Democratic pollster Pat Caddell has joined the board of Californians for Fair Redistricting and we expect other Democrats will also want to let the voters decide if they want their communities kept intact the way the 150-year-old California constitution prescribes." Mundell says the political gerrymandering has created ridiculous boundaries which divide communities and deny the right to representation for millions of voters.

Signatures are being delivered to the county recorders offices throughout the state this week. Six hundred thousand (600,000) signatures are needed to qualify for a special election in 2005.