“This calamitous ruling is a devastating blow to voters’ rights,” Jamie Lyons-Eddy, executive director of Voters Not Politicians, said. “The decision fundamentally inhibits the ability of voters in this country to advocate for their own constitutional rights. In our country, political power belongs to the people, and it is not the place for ideological judges to decide that the people have no right to advocate for their right to vote and freely elect their preferred representatives. If you are not alarmed by the pattern of extremist judges tearing down voter protections in America, you’re not paying attention.”
Gerrymandering
The U.S. Supreme Court could soon grant state legislatures unconditional control over federal elections, clearing the way for lawmakers to gerrymander their states with impunity and pass voter restriction measures without interference from state courts.
Now that the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) approved final state and congressional maps, the contours of the 2022 election are becoming clearer for candidates.
The Michigan Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by several media organizations that allege the state’s redistricting commission has violated the constitutional requirement of transparency.
The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) Friday approved nine proposed maps — three each for the state House, state Senate and congressional districts — but have opened the door for potentially introducing new maps proposed by individual commissioners down the road. The question now is if that’s allowed by the Michigan Constitution, and if it is, would those maps be held to the 45-day comment period standard?
This year’s round of redistricting is already crumbling into partisanship and court challenges in multiple states, even as voters pay more attention than ever to new political maps that will shape elections for a decade
Add the Michigan Civil Rights Department director to the growing number of voices who say that the initial redistricting maps proposed by the state’s new independent panel violate the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965.
A national gerrymandering project from Princeton University has graded Michigan’s 10 preliminary district maps headed for public comment after they were approved last week by the state’s independent citizens panel.
The Michigan Independent Redistricting Commission (MICRC) has been working on drafting maps for the state Senate, House and congressional districts for several weeks, but the drafts that have been made public so far are far from the final product.
Michigan’s redistricting commission began drafting new congressional and legislative maps on Friday and will do so through Oct. 8. This comes after the commission approved Thursday a process and schedule to draft the maps in a 10-2 vote.
The Michigan AFL-CIO drew up its own set of state legislative maps for the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) to consider before the panel begins crafting new U.S. House and state House and Senate district lines for the next 10 years.
The Department of Justice announced Friday that it is doubling its enforcement attorneys who will work to protect voting rights. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s announcement came as Republicans in state legislatures introduce and pass restrictive voting laws, such as limiting ballot boxes and requiring voter identification.
The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) in charge of drawing the state’s new U.S. House and state House and Senate district lines for the 2022 elections is gearing up to kick off its series of 16 public hearings across the state which begins today, Tuesday, May 11.
In Michigan, Republican lawmakers this week introduced a 39-bill package that would ban unsolicited mass mailing of absentee ballot applications, prohibit pre-paid postage on absentee ballot envelopes for absentee ballots, require a photo ID, curb the hours people could drop off their ballots in boxes and require video surveillance of such drop boxes.
After a delay in Census data threw off the timeline for the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC) to draw its maps, the group unanimously voted Friday to try to get a deadline extension from the Michigan Supreme Court.
Julianne Pastula, general counsel for Michigan’s new Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC), said during a meeting Thursday that the current timeline for drawing new district lines is “an untenable situation.”
The 2020 census had a challenging year with the COVID-19 pandemic. Now a delay in census data from the U.S. Census Bureau will likely throw a wrench in the plans of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC), which needs the data to draw new legislative and congressional districts.