You can submit your own redistricting map in Michigan; here s how
Posted at 1:19 PM, May 20, 2021
and last updated 2021-05-20 14:16:24-04
(WXYZ) â The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission is seeking public feedback as they plan to draw the state s congressional lines, and you have the chance to submit your own map with your own lines.
The state has partnered with Districtr to give people the option to draw Michigan s 13 congressional districts for 2022 and the next 10 years, as well as state house and senate districts.
You can draw different lines for cities, counties and more, and then submit them to the commission. You can also submit public comment.
Matt Grossmann and Arnold Weinfeld talk with Suann Hammersmith.
Before talking with Hammersmith, Grossmann and Weinfeld discuss the implications of loosening mask restrictions, the recent ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, and the “enormous” influx of federal dollars into Michigan’s state budget. The money is very helpful to Michigan communities in many ways, but Grossmann cautions that “the spigot is going to be turned off at some point.”
Credit Cindy Kyle | MSU IPPSR
Grossmann and Weinfeld also talk about the removal of Liz Cheney from her leadership role in the Republican party in Congress. Grossman explains why he thinks the move was less about Donald Trump and more about how people just don’t like public internal squabbling in political parties.
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WKAR s Sophia Saliby speaks with M.C. Rothhorn, a member of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.
WKAR s Sophia Saliby spoke with M.C. Rothhorn. He s a Lansing Democrat who is a part of the commission.
Interview Highlights
On The Public Hearings The Commission Is Hosting
We re affectionately calling these public hearings, it s a listening tour. Before we can draw any of the maps that you mentioned, what we ve done is figured out how to run these and how to be inclusive. Radically inclusive for people to know that we want to listen [and] that we want to hear from people. And before we draw any maps, right, we need to get this input.
We are watching as these citizen commissioners, picked at random from thousands of applicants, exert their Constitutional authority and use the information gleaned from the hearings, the first planned for Tuesday, May 11, in Jackson, to draw districts that truly represent the people of Michigan.
Voters Not Politicians and other organizations have been meeting with a variety of groups to make sure they are ready to make their case before the commission about how districts should be drawn. A key part of the VNP proposal calls for the commission to draw districts that reflect Michigan’s communities of interest – groups of citizens that share a particular reason for wanting to be put together in a district.