Metro Detroit’s voting maps aren’t just a mess as a federal court ruled they’re illegal and they must be redrawn, and there can be no further elections held in 13 of the State House and State Senate seats until that happens.
The problem, according to the federal court, was that the Independent Citizen’s Commission in charge bungled the process, got insufficient information from their so-called experts, and drew maps that, in the name of fairness, ended up diluting the Black vote.
Redrawing 13 districts without impacting all those around them is the million-dollar question and one that nobody has an answer for
Michigan’s political maps used to be drawn every 10 years by the party in charge of the legislature at the time, but a constitutional amendment passed by the voters in 2018 put that power in the hands of the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.
On Thursday (Dec. 21), a federal court said the maps drawn by the commission in Metro Detroit violated the Equal Rights Act.
A supposition long championed by Detroit Democrats who say the maps did nothing but dilute the Black vote. According to the court, the experts hired by the commission gave them bad advice.
“Yet these experts told the commissioners again and again-based on general election day alone that Black preferred candidates would perform well in these districts. That was a grave disservice to everyone involved with this case and, above all else, the voters themselves.”
So now, House Districts 1, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14 have to be redrawn, and Senate Districts 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, and 11.
So now elections in those districts can only happen once they’re redrawn, and the November general election must do it.
Redrawing them without impacting everything else in Metro Detroit remains to be seen, but it has to be achieved by court order by Nov. 2024