The Headlines
Last Friday was the deadline for the plaintiffs to submit any objections to the maps that the MICRC submitted to the court, and as expected, they had none. Now we are only waiting on the Reviewing Special Master’s report and final court approval to make the new state senate maps official. That means we’ve most likely avoided the worst-case outcomes of this process. I’ll explain more in the details.
In exciting election news, MichiganEarlyVote.com, the successor to Voters Ed Fund’s highly successful MichiganDropbox.com, will be launching just in time for the August Primary Election. In addition to providing voters with any easy, free tool to look up their available ballot drop boxes, voters will also be able to find their early vote centers. We are working hard to finalize details ahead of the August Primary, so stay tuned for the launch!
The Details
Redistricting
- As many of you will remember, at the beginning of this redraw process, many doubted that the MICRC could do what was needed to draw remedial legislative maps to address the concerns identified by the three-judge federal panel. In fact, the process that Voters Not Politicians created held up, and the commission was successful in submitting two remedial maps to the court.
- The remedial map for the Michigan House has already been approved by the court and was adopted in time for the filing deadline for the candidates who will compete in the primary on August 6th.
- The map for the Michigan Senate awaits a report from the Reviewing Special Master Bernard Grofman, expected today.
- Because the commission followed a similar process for the state senate redraw, drawing the maps without considering race, we fully expect the court to accept the Crane A1 plan that was submitted without objection from the plaintiffs.
- We have concerns about the commission’s dismissal of public comment at the end of the senate district redraw, and their missed opportunity to improve partisan fairness while providing opportunities for historically marginalized communities to elect candidates of their choice.
- The map chosen in the ranked voting process has more partisan bias in favor of Republicans than the Linden plan that was used in the 2022 Michigan Senate elections. (The Linden plan was already somewhat biased in favor of Republicans, but that bias was overcome by strong Dem performance at the top of the ticket and the reproductive freedom ballot initiative that brought out a large number of younger voters.)
- Three other options (Szetela, Heron, and Kellom) had similar VRA compliance, less partisan bias and more public support than the Crane A1 map that was ultimately chosen. We look forward to reading the required report, expected in August, in which the commission will explain why they made this decision.
- However, the Crane A1 map that the commission submitted to the court is still much better than many of the other options that made the finalist round, and the process remains intact.
- Overall, this is a win for Michigan voters and for other states, including our neighbors in Ohio, who are considering the independent commission model.
Getting MichiganEarlyVote.com Ready to Launch for August Primary
- Staff, interns, and volunteers are calling clerks in Michigan’s 1,240 townships and 280 cities to verify the location and 24-hour availability of Michigan’s ballot drop boxes.
- Because of Proposal 22-2’s requirement that every municipality has at least one drop box, and another for every 15,000 voters, the list of drop boxes available for voters is growing this year! So far we have confirmed almost 1,500 drop box locations, and expect to have the remaining municipal drop boxes confirmed before the end of next week.
- Additionally, we are excited to add the location and hours of early vote centers to our data. This new search function will help voters use the increased access to the ballot provided by Proposal 22-2.
What’s Next
At time of writing, we’ve yet to see the Reviewing Special Master’s report, but here are the remaining steps to finishing up this redraw process:
- Each party has the opportunity to file briefs in response to the special report by July 19th.
- The court’s schedule calls for adoption of a remedial senate district plan by July 26th. In the unlikely event that the court does not approve the map submitted by the MICRC, Mapping Special Master (MSM) Michael Barber would be asked to produce an alternate mapping plan.
- The MICRC is required to publish a report explaining their decisions made during the mapping process. We are expecting their report on the house redraw to be released this month, with the senate report to follow in August.
As we look toward the future of redistricting in Michigan and in other states across the country, Voters Not Politicians will share the lessons learned during this first successful cycle to inform the work of redistricting commissions going forward.
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