Back in 2018, the residents of Michigan voted to create a constitutional amendment that gave the power of creating new voting districts in Michigan to a group of 13 randomly selected Michigan voters.  The last time Michigan’s districts were redrawn the power was with the legislators.

A huge roadblock has been placed in front of this new Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission of “regular” voters.  The Detroit Free Press is reporting that the U.S. Census Bureau has informed them that their data will be delayed.  In fact not just delayed by a few weeks or months but longer.  The Census Bureau told the States that they will be delivering their redistricting data by Sept. 30 2021 a full six months later than they were told they would be receiving the data.

Because Michigan’s constitution states that the commission must inform us of their proposed districts by Sept. 17, 2021, this delay poses a big problem. The commission’s general counsel Julianne Pastula stated at the Feb. 18 commission meeting:

"This is an untenable situation...

She went on to say:

"There are options to address the delay that I will present to the commission for discussion”

But then she made a mistake and said that she would propose those options to the commissioners:

"in a privileged and confidential document...We will most likely have our first closed session to explore those options”

Mrs. Pastula has one very large legal problem in front of her.  Michigan’s constitution states that "[t]he commission shall conduct all of its business at open meetings”.  Once she was reminded of that issue she told the commission last week that they will not be holding any closed-door meetings.

The next commission meeting will be on March 5th at 1 p.m. to discuss the options they have to choose from.

How are they going to be able to set the new districts in time for next year's primaries?  Not really starting off on the right foot although it is not their fault.  Surprise, surprise government is late on delivering on their promises.

In fact, clicks on the link below and give yourself a laugh:

Michigan House District Map courtesy of Michigan's Secretary of State's office

Also if you would like to purchase the cool oven mitts click on the following link:

Michigan Oven Mitt-Upper & Lower Peninsula Map-Blue

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