A Look At Implementing Proposal 2

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michigan2-2

Michigan’s legislative districts could drastically change now that voters have approved Proposal 2. The ballot proposal hands over the drawing of districts to a citizens commission, taking that power away from the state legislature. Katie Fahey with Voters Not Politicians, the group behind the initiative, tells WSJM News this new commission will have four Democrats, four Republicans, and five independents. There will be two ways someone might wind up on it.

“You wither have to apply, or the Secretary of State’s office will actually mail 10,000 applications to different Michiganders as well,” Fahey said.

Those 10,000 applications will go out for the first time in January of 2020 with the deadline for someone to apply in June of 2020. The Michigan Secretary of State’s office will randomly select the commission’s members in a lottery system. Each political party will be able to weed out some people selected, and those who hold elected office and their employees will not be eligible. The commission will then have to hold at least ten hearings all over the state as it prepares to draw the map.

“In order to adopt the final maps, they’ll need at least two of the Democrats, at least two of the Republicans, and at least two of the independents to all agree on what the final map should be,” Fahey said.

Fahey does expect the end result will be much different political districts in Michigan.

“We see that Michigan is one of the most gerrymandered states in our country, and that really means that there are thousands, if not millions, of Michigander voices that are being suppressed under the current system,” Fahey said. “These maps should lead to results that actually look like how the people of Michigan vote.”

Fahey says the commission will be made up of people from all areas of the state. Ten years later, when the districts need to be drawn again, a new commission will be formed. Fahey says, right now, six states have their districts drawn by independent commissions.