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Residents voice concerns about possibly dividing Flint into separate legislative districts

Featured photo: Sadique Martin was one of many speakers at a recent public hearing.

A recent public hearing held at the Dort Financial (Event) Center attracted Michigan residents from across the state.

In November 2018, Michigan voters by a 61-39% margin supported a constitutional amendment that makes a commission of 13 randomly selected citizens rather elected politicians, consultants or lobbyists responsible for drawing fair and representative election districts for the Michigan Legislature and U.S. Congress. Thus, the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission was birthed!

The public hearing gave residents the opportunity to let the Commission know whether they were “getting it right.”

The goal of the public hearings is for the Commission to gain knowledge and insights from the public to enable members of the MICRC to continue to refine and improve its draft maps to satisfy the seven-ranked redistricting criteria as outlined in Michigan’s Constitution.

Though many expressed gratitude to the commissioners for their service and some acknowledged their proposed maps as being an improvement over gerrymandered maps of the past, some residents said the commissioners still had work to do.

According to Michigan. gov, partisan bias is introduced in two ways: cracking and packing. Cracking  is spreading a party’s supporters across many districts relatively thinly so that their votes are all cast for losing candidates , and packing is concentrating a party’s supporters into a few districts so that their votes will elect candidates with far more than 50% plus one vote threshold required to win.

Being aware these tactics do exist, some of the speakers at the public hearing argued proposed maps gave Republicans an advantage.

The efficiency gap is a way of quantifying the effect of political district boundaries being drawn to benefit one group over another by counting the number of wasted votes for each party and identifying large imbalances towards either side. Multiple speakers advised the Commission to get partisan efficiency gap down to zero.

Another common theme was communities of interest, and Flint residents and other Michigan residents pleaded with the commissioners to keep Flint together after seeing state legislative draft maps put portions of the city into two separate state House districts.

Essence Wilson

Essence Wilson, a Flint resident who works at Communities First, Inc., said as the organization engages other Flint residents in the redistricting process, there have been serious concerns about the maps the Commission had proposed.

“The most concerning map for us is the State House map,” Wilson said. “Three versions were presented by the Commission and all have the same net effect. They make it highly unlikely that a Flint person will be elected to the State House and even less likely that that representation will be a minority, although Flint is a majority African American city.”

Many residents, including Wilson, referenced P7273 as their preferred House map. Several Flint residents and community partners created the map.

Other speakers referenced other maps.

Kathy Otto

Kathy Otto, a GM UAW retired who said she was chair of one of the retiree groups, said Flint needs to be in its own House District.

“This plan in nullifying the Black vote, splitting them up,” she said. “The way the proposal is drawn, Grand Blanc, which is mostly white Republican area, was left whole, but the city of Flint was split up. After all that the city of Flint has been through with the water problems that poisoned many of the Flint kids and families, they need to be able to be represented by those they know have a voice and a heart for Flint.”

Pastor Alfred Harris

Pastor Alfred Harris of Saints of God Church in Flint and president of the Concerned Pastors for Social Action urged the Commission to vote according to the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War.

“Gerrymandering and voter suppression is a real thing,” he said. “I feel in my heart of hearts that to divide Flint is just taking away the Black representation. We can’t do that. In fact, if it happens, it will be Bloody Sunday without the dogs, without the horsemen, without the sticks going on folks heads, but the results will be the same.”

On Friday, Nov. 5. the MICRC is scheduled to adopt proposed maps. Those maps will then be published for public review around Nov. 14. According to the Constitution, upon MICRC publication of the proposed redistricting maps, the commission must provide a minimum of 45 days for additional public comment. During the 45-day comment period, the MICRC plans to host public meetings allowing for additional comment on Thursdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.: Nov. 18, Dec. 2, Dec.16 and Dec. 30.

Details about these meetings will be available at michigan.gov/MICRC under “Meeting Notices & Materials.

Commissioners are expected to adopt final maps on Dec. 30. The commission is required to publish the final maps within 30 days after adopting a plan. The adopted redistricting plan with new legislative boundaries for the state House, state Senate and congressional districts will become law 60 days after its publication.

These district maps will take effect prior to the 2022 primary and general elections.

Drafted maps are named after various trees in Michigan . To see the proposed maps, click here: https://www.michigan.gov/micrc/0,10083,7-418-107190_108606—,00.html.

Lathan Jefferson passionately speaks, saying if the MICRC divides Flint, with all it contributions even in World War I & II, something is seriously wrong.
Athena McKay is one of several Flint residents that suggested the MICRC consider House Map P7273.

 

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