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MICRC sued by state lawmakers

The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Committee is being sued by state lawmakers who claim the newly revised district maps reduce the power of minority votes.

“From the very beginning we anticipated that there would be lawsuits filed,” said Commissioner Steven Lett.

Last Monday state lawmakers filed a lawsuit with the Michigan Supreme Court siting multiple claims that the majority of minority districts have been done away with.

MICRC Commissioner Lett had this to say.

“There claiming we diluted by removing minority majority districts so that the minorities were no longer majority, and while that’s true there are fewer minority majority districts, i don’t think it is true that they won’t have an opportunity to elect a person of their choice.”

Fewer minority districts mean less opportunity for minority voices to be heard.

The MICRC also combined districts with wildly different needs such as inner cities with wealthy suburbs.

In order to maintain minority representation, the MICRC says they examined data from previous elections carefully.

“We try to very thoughtfully look at the statistics on past elections and determine based upon the experts and the percentages what it would take to maintain minority representation in the Detroit area, or in the flint area or in the Saginaw area.”

The redistricting committee says they feel that they have met their obligation and currently have no plans to go back and make any changes.

“Right now its completely solidified, as far as we’re concerned we’re done. We had our vote, we took the vote an approved the ones that we thought were fair and legal and if the court determines they weren’t then we’ll go back to work.”

We will continue to keep you updated on this story as it unfolds.