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Michigan districts 'packed' Detroit voters in the past, commission aims to change that

Clara Hendrickson
Detroit Free Press

State legislative districts in Detroit drawn a decade ago packed Black voters into oddly shaped districts, according to a voting rights expert for Michigan's redistricting commission.

It's now up to the state's first-ever, independent redistricting commission to redraw district lines that ensure minority voters can elect their preferred candidates without being unnecessarily concentrated in ways that dilute their voting power.

Lisa Handley, a political scientist hired to undertake an analysis of racial voting patterns in Michigan for the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, presented the results of her analysis of the 13 statewide elections since the last redistricting cycle during a presentation to the commission Thursday. Her findings will help the commission draw districts that comply with the Voting Rights Act, which makes racially discriminatory redistricting plans illegal. 

In reviewing the current districts drawn by Republicans in 2011, Handley identified state legislative districts in Detroit that have far more Black voters than needed to serve as an effective district compliant with the Voting Rights Act.

"Those are packed," Handley said, pointing to a map of state House and state Senate districts in Detroit. Those districts are "not necessarily prettily shaped," she pointed out. "It wasn't like they were creating districts that were nice, little compact districts."

Handley said she could not produce estimates of white voting behavior because were "there were virtually no whites voting in these districts." Three state House districts in the city are home to more than 90% of the Black voting age population, she said.   

Bruce Adelson, the commission's voting rights attorney, said he had never seen anything like it in his career.

"This is my third round of redistricting," he said. "I have never drafted, approved, endorsed a 90%-plus majority-minority district." 

He said that the current districts might have double the minority population needed to ensure non-white voters can elect their preferred candidates. "I've looked and thought about this and tried to remember the hundreds of plans I’ve looked at from coast to coast. I don’t ever remember seeing that offhand," he said. 

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The Voting Rights Act prohibits districts that crack minority groups — splitting them between districts — or pack minority groups — concentrating them in a single district. Both forms of racial gerrymandering weaken the voting strength of minority populations, Handley said. 

She and Adelson suggested that the commission would likely be able to ensure Black voters can elect their preferred candidates even in districts where they wouldn't constitute the majority of voters. 

Handley's analysis will help the commission decide where it needs to consider race in drawing the new lines to protect the voting rights of minorities.

Detroit residents arrive at Fellowship Chapel in Detroit to provide input to Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. Citizens gave input on how they want the state's new congressional and legislative districts to be drawn. This is Michigan's first-ever, citizen-led redistricting process.

Statewide, Handley found that white and Black voters consistently preferred different candidates. But the commission will have to do a deep dive into the voting dynamics of specific parts of the state as it draws 110 state House, 38 state Senate and 13 U.S. House of Representatives districts. 

Handley presented findings from Genesee, Oakland, Saginaw and Wayne counties, the only counties that had a sufficient number of minority voters to estimate voting behavior. She was only able to compare Black and white voting trends in those counties because no Michigan county is home to a sufficient Asian American, Hispanic or Native American population, she said. 

The racially polarized voting analysis undertaken by Handley looked at elections in which minority voters and white voters preferred different candidates. She found that the commission will have to pay close attention to how it draws the lines in the four counties analyzed where Black and white voters consistently prefer different election outcomes. 

Oakland County saw the highest number of racially polarized elections, indicating that Black and white voters consistently prefer different candidates. In all 13 elections in Oakland County, Black and white voters were estimated to prefer different outcomes, according to Handley. Wayne County, meanwhile, saw the fewest number of racially polarized elections. Seven out the 13 elections were racially polarized, indicating significant "white crossover" voting in which Black and white voters preferred the same outcome. 

Independent commissioner Anthony Eid said Handley's findings were clear but wondered how the commission would avoid unnecessarily concentrating Black voters. "This says the districts are packed, so how do we unpack them?" he asked. 

Handley said that the commission will be able to use the racial voting patterns generated to see how previous elections in which minority voters backed a minority candidate would have shaken out in the draft districts drawn by the commission.

The commission began drawing maps in late August after 2020 census data was released. The commission plans to publish draft maps on Oct. 8 before holding public hearings across the state to solicit input and then vote to adopt the final plans Dec. 30. The Michigan Constitution requires the commission to adopt the final maps on Nov. 1, but the commission has said the unprecedented delay in census data has made it impossible to meet the constitutional deadline.

Clara Hendrickson fact-checks Michigan issues and politics as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work at bit.ly/freepRFA. Contact her at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.

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