Dr. Martha Sloan of the Copper Country League of Women Voters Redistricting in Michigan Should Politicians Choose their Voters?
Politicians are drawing their own voting maps to manipulate elections and keep themselves and their party in power.
Background In 1788 Patrick Henry and alllies redistricted to keep Madison out of U.S. House. Unsuccessful. Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry in 1812 redistricted Massachusetts to benefit his Democratic-Republican party.
Signed into law a map for Senate redistricting. Because the district looked like a salamander the name was coined Gerrymandering Redrawing lines to get a particular result
1992 R D 2012 R D % Total Votes for Congress 49% 49% % Total Votes for Congress 46% 51% Seats Won 9 (30%) 21 (70%) When Maps Controlled by Democrats in Texas Seats Won 9 (64%) 5 (36%) When Maps Controlled by Republicans
-The U.S. Constitution requires that the seats for the U.S. House of Representatives be apportioned to states according to the population count in the federal Census, conducted every 10 years. (Article 1, Section 2) -In the 1964 case of Reynolds v. Sims, the United States Supreme Court determined that the general basis of apportionment should be "one person, one vote." This rule means that, generally, electoral districts must be equal in population according to the most recent census so that each person's vote is equally weighted. -Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) blocks district lines that deny minority voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice. -A case before the Supreme Court in March 2016, Evenwel v. Abbott, may change how states can draw district lines. The issue is whether one person, one vote means all people or just those eligible to vote. 11/3/2015 6
Governor can veto the plans for MI Congressional or Legislative districts. State Supreme Court can review the maps. 11/3/2015 7
Partisan politicians manipulate elections to keep themselves and their party in power. 11/3/2015 9
Graph by Stephen Nass, Posted by: WashingtonPost.com
Redistricting Techniques https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mky11uj b9ay - 5.26 min.
Legislature: A legislative committee creates a redistricting plan and submits it, in the form of a bill, to the full legislature. Upon final legislative approval, the redistricting plan is subject to gubernatorial veto. Advisory Commission: Advisory commission drafts a plan, but it is subject to legislative approval. Independent Commission: Citizens draw maps with no approval from legislature required.
Alabama Delaware Florida Georgia Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Nebraska New Hampshire New Mexico Nevada North Carolina North Dakota Oregon South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Utah Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
Arkansas Colorado Connecticut Hawaii Illinois Iowa Maine Mississippi Missouri New Jersey New York Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island Texas Vermont
Alaska Arizona California Idaho Montana Washington
Washington Redistricting 1956: League of Women Voters proposes plan linking redistributing to population trends; Legislature changed it. 1982 Senate Joint Resolution places Constitutional Amendment 74 on ballot. Voters approve with 61% in favor. Majority and minority leaders of the Washington House and Senate each appoint a member; those four appoint a fifth member as a non-voting chair; this commission determines districts. 1991, 2001, 2011 successive Redistributing Commissions meet.
Arizona Redistricting Single seat in US House until 1941 Followed by rapid growth Voters passed Proposition 106 in 2000 56.1% to 43.9% Criteria in priority order Comply with US Constitution and VRA Roughly equal in population Appear compact and contiguous Respect communities of interest Incorporate geographic features and boundaries Electorally competitive
The Arizona legislature contended that the amendment to the state constitution violated a provision of the U.S. Constitution that requires state legislatures to set congressional district boundaries. On June 29, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a voter-approved independent redistricting commission in Arizona is constitutional. The Arizona commission has 2 Republicans, 2 Democrats and the chair who cannot be a member of either party.
California Redistricting Before Earl Warren court: one-person, one-vote decision, CA Senate was by counties so Alpine County s 397 people and Los Angeles six million people each had one Senator. After court decision and legislative impasse, the CA supreme court adopted a plan in 1973. 1980 census gave CA 45 congressional districts Democrats redistricted one of most notorious gerrymanders of the decade Contained a 385-sided district Republicans placed veto referendum on ballot Voters overwhelmingly rejected gerrymandered plans by voting 60% or more no on three referendums But Supreme Court justices said it had to be used for practicality Democrats» won 60% of seats with 49.9% of vote» But lost governorship and Senate
California Redistricting, p 2 CA Democratic lame duck governor Jerry Brown called extraordinary legislative session amending the voter-rejected districting plan and signing new plan into law In 1982 CA voters rejected Prop. 14 that would have created a commission to redistrict by a vote of 55.5% to 44.5%. In 1984 voters rejected Prop. 39 for a commission of retired judges by 55% to 45%. Legislature passed new redistricting in late 1982 in effect until 1990s. In 1990 voters rejected Pro. 119 that would have created a commission of retired judges by 64% to 36%. After 1990 census Republican governor Wilson Vetoed Democratic redistricting plan claiming violation of VRA and gerrymandering Asked CA supreme court to appoint special masters for redistricting In 1991 another impasse resulted in another Supreme Court Special Masters plan in 1992. After 2000 census Republicans and Democrats agreed to gerrymander to keep status quo in balance of power In 2004 Republican governor Schwarzenegger proposed having retired judges redistrict in Prop. 77, defeated at special 2005 election with 59.5% no votes.
California Redistricting, p 3 In 2008 CA voters approved Proposition 11, largely initiated by Schwarzenegger, by 50.90%. It Turned redistricting to an independent panel of unelected members determined in a complex multi-step process. Established six rank-ordered criteria for creating districts. Applied only to CA positions. In 2010 CA voters Approved extending redistricting by this panel to congressional districts (Prop. 20) by 61.3%, Rejected repealing Prop. 11 (Prop. 27) by 59.5%, Approved top two winners from primaries regardless of party (nonpartisan blanket primaries.
Results of California Redistricting The California League of Women Voters studied redistricting extensively and published a 77-page report, When the People Draw the Lines. It concluded that according to four independent studies California redistricting Respected Communities of Interest Followed accepted techniques and processes in mapping Generally met accepted standards for addressing Voting Rights Issues.
Michigan Redistricting State legislature determines Since 1980 Michigan has lost five congressional seats.
Public Act 463 of 1996 established guidelines for the Michigan legislature and to draw redistricting maps for state positions and to allow the MI Supreme Court to review the maps under certain circumstances. Public Act 221of 1999 stipulated that the Michigan legislature draw voting maps for Congress. 11/3/2015 2 5
Fair representation in Congress would look like this: Republican (6) Democrats (8) Actual representation in Congress looks like this: Republican (9) Democrats (5)
2014 Michigan Votes for Congress 66.5% for a Republican Candidate and 33.5% for a Democratic Candidate Fair representation in Congress would look like this: Republican (9) Democrats (5) Actual representation in Congress looks like this: Republican (9) Democrats (5)
1973-1992
1993-2013
Since 2013
Current 14 th District
Michigan Senate
League of Women Voters of MI
State House R D Votes 46% 53% Seats Won 59 (54%) 51 (46%)
Caveat on Michigan Figures I was unable to get voting figures for the Michigan House and Senate for 2014, but the changes in seats suggest that, as for the US House shown earlier, that Republicans may have had a larger part of the vote for Michigan House and Senate. However, Democrats were clearly in the majority for US Senator. One has to watch for cherry picking of data when only an earlier year is given.
Change the rules so that the process is fair, transparent and impartial.
1. Legislators can introduce legislation to amend the MI Constitution. It has to be passed by the legislature, signed by the Governor and then voted on by the people. OR 2. MI citizens can initiate an initiative petition to allow a vote on the issue if enough signatures (over 400,000) are gathered to place it on the statewide ballot.
An open redistricting process that provides meaningful opportunities for public involvement. The formation of an independent redistricting commission in lieu of the legislature as the primary redistricting body.
When we vote, we want our elections to be fair, our votes to count and our voices to be heard. The process of drawing election maps should be transparent, impartial and fair. Partisan politicians manipulate elections to keep themselves and their party in power. That s putting the fox in charge of the henhouse it s a conflict of interest.
Sign up to help educate voters on the problem: politicians are drawing the lines. Write Letters to the Editor Post on Facebook Make Phone Calls Knock on Doors Learn more about redistricting from the Citizen s Research Council, http://crcmich.org.
http://lwvmi.org/documents/redistposit.pdf - LWVMI position
For More Information http://www.lwvmi.org/documents/redistpres entation2015.pdf#search="gerrymandering
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