Consider fairness in drawing voting districts for lawmakers

Paper: Detroit News, The (MI)

Date: June 19, 2007

Michigan will have to redraw the boundaries on its election map in a couple of years and it's not too early to look at better ways to do it. State Sen. Glenn Anderson has performed a useful service by proposing a ballot issue that allows voters to consider a more balanced approach to redistricting.

Mention redistricting and most voters would respond the way people do when confronted with civics questions from late night talk show host Jay Leno, Anderson quips. The Westland Democrat is right, but he's also correct they're vaguely aware there's something not quite right about Michigan's process.

In Michigan, the Legislature is tasked with drawing the district lines for Congress and its own members after every census. After most of the attempts in the last few decades, the Legislature has made a muddle of it and the state Supreme Court has finished the job. In 2001, a GOP-controlled state House and Senate drew the lines.

Not surprisingly, even though the total votes cast for Congress and state Senate favored Democrats in 2006, more Republicans were elected to these posts. The reverse happened in previous years when Democrats controlled the Legislature and Supreme Court.

Rich Robinson of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network notes that this kind of outcome is harder to produce with smaller districts such as the 110 seats in the Michigan House.

Anderson proposes a special commission with an odd number of members to do the job. He suggests a nine-member commission with the major political parties getting two members each, the state House speaker and minority leader each having an appointment, and the Senate majority and minority leaders also each naming a member. The final member would be chosen by the other eight.

This commission would be charged with drawing up legislative boundaries that follow Michigan's historical standards: The legislative and congressional districts must be equal in population, be compact and respect local government boundaries where possible. The change would take a statewide vote to amend the Michigan Constitution.

Robinson suggests that another criterion -- making districts as competitive between the two parties as possible -- also be considered. Other states, notably Iowa, have gone to such a system with some success.

While Michigan has tried redistricting commissions before, they have had eight members and deadlocked, throwing the issue into the courts. Anderson's proposal, or something like it, ought to be considered by both major parties. It would guarantee them a role in the process that they wouldn't have if one party gains control of both houses of the Legislature.

And, as Anderson says, it would help improve citizen trust in the political process if voters go back to choosing their politicians, rather than having politicians choose their voters.

Author: The Detroit News

Section: Editorials

Page: 06A

Warning: main(../../../../../../include/footer.html): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /var/www/html/News_Info/News_Info/News_articles/Michigan/ConsiderFairnessInDrawingVotingDistrictsForLawmakers_6_19_07.htm on line 47

Warning: main(): Failed opening '../../../../../../include/footer.html' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear') in /var/www/html/News_Info/News_Info/News_articles/Michigan/ConsiderFairnessInDrawingVotingDistrictsForLawmakers_6_19_07.htm on line 47