Special online workshop for creation of Hayward City Council districts to be held June 11

Hayward residents are invited to a special online workshop on Tuesday evening to learn about and participate in the creation of new legislative districts from which City Council members will be elected starting in 2026. 

The special Map Hayward online workshop will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 11, on Zoom and will be hosted by Hayward City Clerk Miriam Lens and demographer Karin Mac Donald, director of the Statewide Database & Elections Administration Center at UC Berkeley. Information on how to attend the online workshop is available here. 

Under a legal settlement announced last month, the City of Hayward will move to a system of elections for City Council whereby all Council members except the City’s mayor will be elected from geographic districts rather than through at-large citywide elections. 

Once in effect, the change means voters will cast ballots to elect only their district Councilmember and for mayor rather than to fill all Council seats. 

Under the settlement, the change will take full effect starting in November 2026 when two of six non-mayoral seats on Hayward’s seven-member Council will be up for election followed by the remaining four non-mayoral seats in November 2028. Elections for mayor will remain at-large. 

The court-approved settlement ends a lawsuit brought under the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) on behalf of Hayward resident Jack Wu and Neighborhood Elections Now, Inc. The lawsuit asserted that Hayward’s at-large election system for Council unlawfully dilutes the voting power of Asian Americans. 

Per terms of the settlement, legislation establishing Hayward’s six Council districts must be adopted by Oct. 14.

To provide information about Hayward’s move to district-based elections and facilitate community input and participation in the map-drawing process, the City established a website with map-drawing tools and other resources at www.MapHayward.org.