An Analysis of Public Input on Michigan’s Redistricting Process
In 2018, Michigan residents voted in favor of Proposal 18-2, a ballot measure that shifted redistricting authority from the state legislature to an independent commission. By August 2020, 13 commissioners, made up of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, were appointed to serve on the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) to redraw the state’s electoral maps. The Commission began holding public meetings across the state beginning in September 2020 and finalized the maps by December 2021. During this period, they received approximately 30,000 spoken and written testimonies.
In 2021, a team of students at the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) in the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy began an analysis of the constituent testimonies made to the Commission throughout the redistricting process. This paper provides an overview of Michigan’s redistricting process based on qualitative analysis of the testimonies.