A proposed new map for a half-dozen state Senate districts is on its way to a federal court for approval after a preliminary thumbs up Wednesday from Michigan’s redistricting panel.
The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) redrew the metro Detroit districts after it was ordered to do so by a federal court late last year, which ruled 13 state House and Senate maps were drawn unconstitutionally and improperly reduced Black voting percentages.
The new Senate map, called Crane A1, was the result of work begun by the 13-member commission in April, including six public input hearings that concluded earlier this month, and then three days of deliberations this week, which ended Wednesday with the selection. However, that was no easy task as five rounds of voting failed to get enough members to vote in favor of the dozen possible map proposals. The Crane A1 map was finally selected after a ranked-choice round in which each commissioner ranked the maps in order of preference.
Jaime Lyons-Eddy, the executive director of
Voters Not Politicians, the organization that spearheaded Proposal 2 that passed in 2018 and created the MICRC, agreed the map was not what they had hoped for, but said it still represented a positive step forward for election fairness in Michigan.
“The Crane A1 map, which was not among the maps with the best partisan fairness measures, also represents a missed opportunity to improve upon the partisan fairness of the 2022 Linden map,” said Eddy. “However, it is considerably less biased than the worst-performing maps under consideration. Importantly, supporters of independent redistricting can still take heart that these maps are the product of an independent, transparent process, and were not drawn in secret by and for politicians.”
However, the map will need to get approval from the federal court first, which is expected by July 26. If it doesn’t, the judicial panel could then turn to a court-appointed mapmaker to finalize the district boundaries that will be in play for the 2026 election.
The MICRC successfully redrew seven new House districts in March, in time for elections later this year.
This story was originally published by Michigan Advance. Read more here: https://michiganadvance.com/2024/06/27/redistricting-commission-selects-a-proposed-senate-map-on-6th-round-of-voting/
