The Headlines
As expected, the federal court has officially ordered the map submitted by the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to be adopted and used for Michigan State Senate elections through 2030.
That means this redraw is officially over!
When this court-ordered redraw started, many bad outcomes were possible, including legislative district maps created by a partisan-leaning special master (which would have resulted both in unfair maps and a big step backward both for Michigan and for independent redistricting across the country) or commission-created maps that took us back to the major bias we had before 2020. But in the end, thanks to extensive efforts by Voters Not Politicians in concert with our partners, our state ended up with new legislative maps that address the problems identified by the court, provide more opportunity districts, and are similar in partisan fairness to the 2021 maps.
Here’s a recap of everything that happened during this six-month process.
The Details
- A three-judge federal panel ruled in December of 2023 that several Michigan legislative districts were invalid under the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. Agee v Benson was brought by a group of Detroit residents who challenged the previous maps on the basis that they diluted Black voters’ voting strength. This suit was supported by Tony Daunt, a longtime opponent of the independent redistricting process in Michigan and Republican political insider, and the plaintiffs’ legal team was led by John J. Bursch, who is active in the Federalist Society.
- VNP developed a layered strategy aimed at preserving public faith in the process, encouraging commissioners to stay dedicated to the work, and making sure remedial maps followed the constitutional amendment approved by voters.
- The MICRC ultimately submitted remedial plans for the Michigan House of Representatives (Motown Sound FC E1) and the Michigan Senate (Crane A1) that were approved by both the Reviewing Special Master Bernard Grofman and the three-judge federal panel.
- Both maps significantly improved the opportunity for historically marginalized communities in Detroit to elect the candidates of their choice.
- The senate district maps have slightly worse partisan fairness scores than the 2021 plan, and the house district maps have essentially the same level of partisan bias as the 2021 plan.
- During the redraws, VNP identified three significant concerns which represent opportunities to improve Michigan’s redistricting procedures in future cycles.
- In the final days of the senate district redraw, a majority of commissioners appeared to dismiss public comment in favor of a map supported by the plaintiffs and some Detroit stakeholders. The Senate district maps with the most positive public feedback would also have improved partisan fairness over the previously adopted Linden plan.
- The commission openly rejected any public feedback that they felt may have been organized, even without any evidence showing coordination. They also rejected maps drawn by nonpartisan academic or community groups such as Promote the Vote and Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research. While we understand that large-scale partisan political organizing of public input would be problematic, the support of community organizations is essential to help citizens navigate the redistricting process. The constitutional amendment clearly requires that the commission must consider input, including maps, “from any member of the public.”
- The commission failed to provide information that would allow for a direct comparison of the proposed draft maps to the plans that were invalidated by the court and did not share the data or their method for putting together the composite index used to evaluate partisan fairness.
- Voters Not Politicians’ work to protect the independent redistricting process included partner coordination, large-scale outreach to Detroit voters and the public, support for those giving public comment, direct open communication to the commission, earned media, and keeping stakeholders informed through this weekly update email series.
- We reached 1,074,228 Metro Detroit residents through our digital ad campaign, with 7,923,767 content views and well over 93,000 click-throughs to our landing page, which included a grassroots digital toolkit that Detroiters could use to engage with the redraw process.
- We supported online comments through the MICRC portal with five public comment coaching events and a written one-pager with portal instructions.
- We shared two noteworthy memos with the commission: one summarized our observations of the house district redraw, outlining what the commission did well and highlighting opportunities for improvement in the senate district redraw; the other gave a more detailed and nuanced analysis of the partisan fairness scores of the commission’s draft maps. We are convinced that getting this additional information to the commission kept the least fair draft maps out of final consideration.
- Three staff members and 18 VNP volunteers also monitored roughly 260 hours of meetings and public hearings, enabling us to respond quickly and effectively in real time.
What’s Next
Now that the redraw is over, these remedial maps will be used for state house and senate elections through 2030, when a new redistricting cycle will begin in conjunction with the next decennial US Census.
The commission still needs to publish their constitutionally-mandated reports explaining the process taken and decisions made during the redraw. We also anticipate the commission to continue meeting monthly through December in order to discuss regular business and make plans to dissolve now that the final outstanding case against the maps is closed.
I will continue to share democracy news as well as updates on VNP’s work through these Weekly Update emails.
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