Democrats in the state House say they want to make the redistricting process as impartial as possible. Representatives introduced legislation Thursday that would completely change Michigan’s redistricting process.
New political boundary lines are drawn every ten years after the census. Usually the majority party in the Legislature controls the redistricting process. But State Representatives Jeremy Moss and Jon Hoadley are leading the charge for a new, non-partisan way of drawing district lines.
Hoadley said the current system is rigged to keep those in control at the time of redistricting in power.
“A whole system works because we have the assumption that voters choose those they want to represent them,” he said. “But redistricting as it’s done right now, it ends up choosing what voters they think are most likely to vote for them. And that’s backwards.”
If passed, districts would be drawn by a random group 14 Republicans, Democrats and Independents with Republicans and Democrats getting equal representation.
Moss said politics has become too much about Republicans versus Democrats. Moss explained that he hopes Republicans will sign onto the bill because whichever party is not in power at the time of redistricting cries foul.
“Enough of the whining on both sides,” he said. “And let’s remove the partisanship from this process. This is an institutional changing type legislation for the better.”
