Today Frankfort Attorney Joan McKay gave us an update on the creation of new legislative and congressional districts in Michigan by the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC).
In 2018 Michignders amended the state Constitution to end gerrymandering and create a fair, impartial and transparent citizen-led redistricting process.  MICRC was created, consisting of 13 Michigan voters who applied and were randomly selected:
  • Four Republicans
  • Four Democrats
  • Five from neither of the two major parties
The Commission's role was to draw and approve Michigan's election districts for the State House of Representatives, the State Senate and Michigan's Representatives in the U.S. Congress, following certain criteria:
  • Federal & VRA requirements
  • Contiguous
  • Communities of interest
  • No favoring party or incumbent
  • County, city township lines
  • Reasonably compact
MICRC gave 72 presentations about its work and received public comments at hearings, in person or via email.  After draft maps were drawn, the Commission held more public hearings and received almost 30,000 comments.  The Commission drew up maps that become law this month.
 
Three lawsuits have been filed, the first of which has already been dismissed.  Joan says the others are unlikely to succeed.  Unless overturned by the courts, the new districts will be in place for the 2022 election and for future elections for the next ten years.  In 2030 there will be another Federal census, and a new set of Commissioners will be chosen for the 2032 elections and beyond.  In the meantime petitions are being circulated as citizen's initiatives that would permit the legislature to circumvent the work of Michigan's completely independent redistricting commission.
 
A copy of Joan's PowerPoint presentation is available here.