THE DEMOCRACY
LOTTERY
Thirteen Michigan voters won what was essentially a lottery this summer. Now they have to get to work: they must spend the next year or so working toward a more fair democracy in the state.
By Patrick Sullivan Mary Burget, a retired Northwest Michigan College math instructor, thought her math skills might be useful in redrawing Michigan’s gerrymandered electoral districts. She was among the 9,000-plus Michigan residents who applied for a seat on the Michigan Redistricting Commission, the independent commission of citizens created as part of the passing of Ballot Proposal 18-2 (aka Voters Not Politicians). The ballot, an effort to stop gerrymandering, was greenlighted by Michigan voters in 2018. It created a constitutional amendment empowering an independent citizen commission to draw district lines (for the Michigan Legislature and Michigan’s congressional representatives) for the 2022 election — and to redraw them every 10 years. In June, she received an email informing her that she was among the 200 randomly selected to create a pool of finalists that represented the state’s diversity and geography. Next, the two top elected officials from the Republican and the Democratic parties each got to remove up to five names from the list, leaving a pool of 180 finalists. Burget survived that round as well. On Aug. 17, Burget watched the final drawing online as the Michigan Secretary of State randomly selected four republicans, four democrats, and five independents to serve on the commission. Burget, a Traverse City Democrat, was not among the finalists, but she wasn’t surprised or disappointed.
“I do understand odds, and I understand probability, so I knew it was a longshot,” she said. “So, no, I was not disappointed.”
AN INDEPENDENT FROM INTERLOCHEN
As the Redistricting Commission meets virtually for the first time this week, it will include two members from northwest Lower Michigan: Interlochen resident Steven Lett and Reed City’s Rhonda Lange. (Lange, a 47-year-old Republican female, did not respond to Northern Express’ request for an interview.)
Already, he said, he’s been buried in materials he needs to study. “There’s quite a bit of material out there that we’ve been provided with already to look at,” he said. “And the census data isn’t even out yet. That’s when the really hard work will begin.” Lett said some of the things the commission will consider as they work to draw reasonable voting districts are contiguous natural populations and existing borders, like city limits or county lines. The objective, he said, is to make the districts as simple as possible.
“In the past, and the reason why the amendment was passed, was that whatever party was in power, they drew it to protect their own people.” Lett, a 73-year-old retired labor law attorney, was randomly selected to serve as one of the commission’s five independent members. He told Northern Express that he applied for the commission because he’s been frustrated by gerrymandering. “I think that the way that it’s been done in the past several decades by both sides, I didn’t think that’s the way it should be done,” Lett said. He expects the job will entail a lot of work.
10 • sept 21, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly
“In the past, and the reason why the amendment was passed, was that whatever party was in power, they drew it to protect their own people,” Lett said. “It doesn’t matter what party you’re in; if you’re the one that’s in power, that’s what you do.” Perhaps most importantly, the commission’s work will be entirely transparent, he said. “All meetings are open to the public and will be posted; the minutes will be posted online so
anybody can look at what we’re doing,” Lett said. The commission is supposed to finish its work by Nov. 1 of next year, so that the districts can be certified and ready before the 2022 elections, but the Nov. 1 deadline can be extended if there are pending legal challenges, which is likely. Also, the commission will likely get a late start because 2020 Census data is expected to be delayed. Nonetheless, Lett said he is hopeful that ultimately the commission will succeed. “I am very optimistic,” he said. “I think it will come together. Neither Democrats nor Republicans were able to pick the people they wanted. It was the luck of the draw. … Hopefully, the people who applied will be those who want to have reasonable districts drawn.”
A DIRE NEED FOR REFORM
Jan Warren, Traverse City resident and a past president of the League of Women Voters of Michigan, helped to circulate the “Voters Not Politicians” petitions that ultimately got the 2018 constitutional amendment on the ballot. Across the state, LWV chapters sponsored town hall meetings in order to spread the word about what the amendment could mean for the state — an end, or a curtailing, of one party or another putting its thumb on the scale to rig elections in their favor. So, Warren is not surprised that the Republican party, the party that’s in control of the state legislature today, is so fervently fighting against the measure, which passed with the support of over 61 percent of voters in the state. Instead of accepting an independent redistricting commission, Republicans have so far filed lawsuits challenging the legality
