(Source: MIRS.news, Published 01/29/2024) Then there were seven maps. The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) Monday voted to chop off and discard eight of the 15 potential Metro Detroit state House maps it was considering to submit to a federal court.
The MICRC voted to "tweak" six maps that commissioners had all worked on together, including one that just fixed the districts the federal court ordered them to fix. The seventh map was penned by an individual commissioner.
The maps that are turned in to the court would need to make it through a battery of tests performed by "reviewing special master" Bernard Grofman.
Two sets of maps, one submitted by the Michigan State University Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and one by Promote the Vote, were cut because the commissioners said they could not determine that race was not a predominate part of how those maps were drawn. There were also three maps cut that could not be bumped hard enough to bring them into compliance with the Voting Rights Act.
The maps that have made the cut are the second Daisy map, the Spirit of Detroit map, the two Bergamot maps, Tulip and Water Lily.
The Bergamot map series makes changes to the seven House districts ordered by the federal three-judge panel, which were 1, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 14, and districts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 13.
The Spirit of Detroit, Water Lily and Tulip were based off the Bergamot maps and shift district borders around slightly.
The last map, which would not be able to be voted out by the commission, was the individual map submitted by Commissioner Rebecca Szetela.
Braden told the commissioners they should end up having 11 House districts with a Black Voting Age Population above 50 percent, but not end up "packing" too many Black voters into one district. He said many of the maps with 10 districts could easily be changed to add one in the Detroit area. However, he said many of the 10 district maps could end up passing Grofman's review.
"I'm not the judge in the beauty contest here. You folks are the judges in the beauty contest. I'm just giving you the outside bounds on it. We're comfortable that these plans comply," Braden said.
The only district map kept by the commission with 11 districts was the Daisy map.
Braden said he was confident that the commission could turn on the racial data at this point to "tweak" the maps in a way to make them comply with the racial portion of the Voting Rights Act.
"The Supreme Court's never said race can't ever be considered. Clearly, they have to be considered to see whether or not you complied," he said.
The commission said they wanted to talk with their legal representation for the Agee v. Benson case before they moved on to doing anything regarding racial data to see what would be legal.
Commissioners then talked over the pros and cons of the six collaborative maps to get a read on which ones they might like to tweak tomorrow after a presentation from their lawyer.
The Daisy map spurred the most criticism from the council, with two of the seven court-ordered House districts falling close to how they were drawn on the Hickory map, which is the map they were ordered to redraw.
"I don't want anything to be close to Hickory, because that was a map that was problematic," Commissioner Brittni Kellom said.
The Water Lily and Spirit of Detroit got the most positive feedback from the commission. Both are based off a collaborative design which was introduced by Kellom.
"I think the Spirit of Detroit maps has all our hands in it and demonstrates our understanding of Detroit and the communities that have spoken out," she said.
