Redistricting Michigan - Redefining Michigan Political Future for the Next 10 years 2020-2030

by Richard C. Clement - Legislative Aide to The Honorable Cynthia A. Johnson, State Representative District 5 (2020-2022 Term).

        The process of redrawing district lines for elected officials in the US House of Representatives, State Senators and Representatives occurs every ten years by law. From numbers compiled from Census enumerators, new district maps are drawn.  For some states the party that is in power at the state level draws the lines to their advantage so that they can control the flow of legislation. Other states have independent redistricting commissions that draw new maps based on input from citizens versus state legislators drawing the maps.

       Elections have consequences and you can look no further than the last 10 yeas in the State of Michigan. In 2010, the Republican Party gained control of the Governor’s office, Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Supreme Court and, both chambers of the Michigan Legislature. The district lines that were drawn by the Michigan Legislature allowed them to have control of writing the laws and, getting re-elected by a small number of people whose community of interest did not have the best interest of the citizens. The policies that came out those ten years looted the assets of urban areas like Detroit, Flint, Benton Harbor, Muskegon, Lansing, and many more through un-elected emergency managers.

       For the last 10 years, you had legislators creating laws that did not care about the wellbeing of the community. Between 2010 and 2020, Cities like Detroit and Highland Park lost control of their schools, water, fire, and police department though dictatorial rules from a state legislature that did not care about their quality of life, just their money.  Redistricting allowed the State of Michigan to condone feeding people poison water and, tax retiree pensions without facing ANY jail time.

Starting September 1^st, 2021, the numbers from the 2020 census will be made available to the public. These numbers will be used to draw the new district lines as required by law every ten years. The numbers are not as accurate as the other years because of the pandemic and, the early termination of Census employees in October of 2020. Michigan is slated to lose on US Congressional seat and the City of Detroit is scheduled to lose one house seat, based on data collected by enumerators who were hampered by bad policy and job terminations by the Trump administration.  However, a case regarding the variance of data can be brought to court so that Michigan won’t lose ANY US Congressional, State House or Senate seat.

Recently I and, Coach Thomas Shannon gave testimony in Detroit MI regarding the new maps in Michigan. The state is tentatively projected to lose one US Congressional seat and, the City of Detroit is losing one State House and State Senate seat.

Coach Shannon and Richard C. Clement 
testifying at the Michigan Independent Redistricting Commission 
meeting in Detroit Michigan

     Variance is the accuracy of in the numbers being collected by the enumerators.  Normally census undercounting numbers vary from 8 to 10 percent. With the recent Covid-19 pandemic and the bungling of the Census by the Trump administration, those percentages are much higher. This assumption is based on the number of customers that DTE was serving on April 1, 2020 that showed a 50,000 person difference in the numbers collected by the census.  Based on standard deviation  and the Covid pandemic,  the State of Michigan and, the City of Detroit should not lose ANY representation in Washington and Lansing because of inaccurate data.

      The difference this year in Michigan is that the people get to draw the district lines instead of the politicians drawing them for power to control legislatures where laws are made. An independent citizen redistricting commission will pick from maps drawn by citizens that are grouped in a community of interest by State and Federal law.  A community of interest can share things like a waterfront, airport, highway, ethnic groups, and other factors.

www.michigan.gov/micrc

For the first time ever, citizens can draw new district lines using open-source software www.districtr.org website that is available to everyone. This software has all 50 states census population data so that a person can draw new district lines base on State and Federal laws. This is the website that the commission is using to draw district lines. Public input is STRONGLY encouraged because you are shaping the political direction of your community.  While a President enforces laws, a legislature shapes the laws to be passed or stops laws that should be passed.

The rules for drawing district lines must comply with federal voting laws and the website will not allow the practice of gerrymandering to take place.  The basic rule for drawing districts is the number of people within them for the following offices.

US House of Reps must have 717,500 people.

Michigan State Senators must have 212,000 people.

MI House of Reps must have 90,000.people

These new maps are due by January 1^st, 2022, in time for the 2022 mid-term primary election in August and general election in November. Currently the site is using numbers from the 2010 census. On September 30^th, 2021, the 2020 Census data will be loaded onto the website. You will have one month to draw lines that reflect the 2020 Census population counts. Official maps are due for presentation by November 1^st, 2021, giving time for court challenges and other legal issues between November 1^st and December.

Organizations like the Michigan AFL-CIO have drawn maps that will be given consideration to the commission.  Partisan groups favoring Republicans are drawing their own maps to benefit themselves. However the final say of an approved map belongs to the Independent Redistricting commission. 

Michigan AFL-CIO Fair Maps Project Link

If your state does not have an independent redistricting commission, then you can use this program to help file court challenges so that communities can have fair district lines drawn before the 2022 August Primaries and November general elections. The direction of your community for the next 10 years will be decided in 2022. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to participate in the Michigan Independent Redistricting Commission process.

 

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