The people have spoken -- and made the pols listen

When I'm out and about wearing my Voters Not Politicians sweatshirt, I've had people call out from cars and stop me to applaud the slogan on my back. Since I'm in California, it's not surprising they don't know the campaign it promotes; it comes from Michigan where a remarkable citizen organizing movement has seen years of work come to fruition today.

I'll pass the explanation to VNP Executive Director Nancy Wang:

Five years ago, a grassroots group of concerned citizens set out on a journey to end gerrymandering in Michigan. Today, their vision was made a reality when Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission adopted the first maps in our state’s history drawn using the fair, impartial, and transparent redistricting process that more than 2.5 million voters approved in 2018.  

The beginning: This journey started with 33 town halls in 33 days where our all-volunteer team traveled the state to educate people on gerrymandering and explore what a fair process could look like. From there, our policy team crafted a constitutional amendment that took feedback gathered at these town halls and research from other states. What resulted was an amendment, tailored to Michigan, that put redistricting in the hands of voters - not politicians. 

During these town hall meetings, VNP also began recruiting what became a 6,500 person volunteer group of citizens who joined together with one goal in mind: to end gerrymandering in Michigan.  

The petitions:  On August 17, 2017, our people-powered movement launched one of the largest all-volunteer signature collection efforts in Michigan history. Thousands of volunteers joined the effort and collected signatures in every single one of Michigan’s 83 counties. 

On December 18, 2017, VNP turned in more than 425,000 petition signatures to put our initiative on the 2018 ballot. After winning a series of legal challenges, the initiative was officially added to the ballot as Proposal 2. 

“Yes on 2” Our massive volunteer group hit the ground running to campaign for Proposal 2. Thousands of volunteers knocked on doors all summer long asking their neighbors to vote “Yes on 2.” ...  On November 6, 2018, 61% of Michigan voters passed the Proposal 2 amendment and made fair, impartial, and transparent redistricting part of Michigan’s constitution. 

Shaping Michigan’s Future: The grassroots organization immediately reengaged volunteers across the state in a massive effort to educate voters about the new redistricting process. Through workshops, digital videos, and community outreach, VNP reached a broad audience of Michigan voters — especially those in historically underrepresented communities — with information on the Commission application process. 

VNP held more than 300 events and identified more than 12,000 Michigan voters who were interested in applying to serve on the commission. When COVID-19 hit Michigan, VNP quickly moved and held 13 virtual workshops and provided 110 applicants with free, remote notary services. 

Our organization did all of this while protecting the amendment in court from political operatives who wanted to change the amendment’s fundamental features.

So are the resulting Congressional maps some kind of pro-Democractic Party gerrymander? Nope. But thousands of Michiganders have made the electoral process their own. That's a huge exercise of engaged citizenship that the country needs more of. The redistricting Commission, which included Dems, independents, and Republicans, managed to pass a new maps by a bi-partisan vote. The Michigan news site MLive reports on the Congressional map:

When the lines drawn following the 2010 census were first put into practice, Michigan’s Congressional delegation was a 9-5 split. In 2018, Democratic candidates flipped two of those seats, bringing the delegation to a 7-7 split. 

Based on a partisan fairness analysis from experts contracted by the commission, the Congressional plan is projected to split with seven Democrats and six Republicans representing Michigan in Congress.

Fair state legislature maps, which the Commission also drew, may prove more important than the Congressional map. The disproportion in the legislature was what got people stirred up in the first place.

Being thoroughly partisan and desperate to preserve a Democratic House delegation, I might have preferred a clean, Dem-favorable, gerrymander. But Michigan is a dangerously divided state where the right has too often turned to armed thuggery. If engaged citizens can win at democratizing a usually obscure process issue, they are building a force which our enfeebled civil society needs to endure.