A citizen’s commission that was supposed to take the politics out of the redrawing of political maps bungled the job, a federal judicial panel ruled. Now, Michigan must race the clock to get new districts approved in time for the 2024 elections.

The three-judge panel ruled last week the work of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission was primarily guided by racial considerations in violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. It has ruled the maps of 13 districts can’t be used in next year’s elections.

A group of Black voters had challenged the new maps, which went into effect for the 2022 elections, saying they diluted African American influence in the state Legislature.

After the last election, Black representation in the Legislature fell to 17 members from 20. In some Metro Detroit districts, Black voting age populations fell to less than 35% in some districts from 60% to 70% previously.

The results were Detroit districts that stretch deep into majority White suburbs and are now represented by suburbanites.

Judge Raymond Kethledge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals wrote the make-up of the districts, “permits no other conclusion” than that they “were drawn predominantly on the basis of race.”

And so now 13 districts must be redrawn either by the citizens commission or the court.

The commission is weighing an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. Given the time constraints, a better decision might be for commissioners to work directly with the judicial panel to get new maps drawn and approved on an expedited schedule.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson filed a brief notifying the court the remapping must be completed and the qualified voter file updated in time to meet the April 23 candidate filing deadline for the August primary. Typically, Benson said, that would take four months — slightly less than the time remaining until the deadline, and with no maps in place.

The citizens commission may be able to shorten the amount of time needed by turning to alternate maps that were prepared during their lengthy mapping work.

More districts than the 13 named in the legal challenge are affected. Redrawing the Metro Detroit boundary lines will impact the districts they border.

Candidates for legislative seats in many of the districts are already announced and campaigning. If the lines change significantly, they’ll have to start over and reach out to new groups of voters.

The redistricting commission itself is in disarray. They are feuding with each other and pointing fingers at the experts who advised them. Three of the 13 commissioners have resigned and are to be replaced next week in a blind drawing by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

The commission was formed by a 2018 ballot initiative largely backed by Democratic interests. Its promise was to take the politics out of redistricting. But its work is now facing the same legal challenges that were common when partisan politicians drew the maps.

The commission is scheduled to meet next week to replace the vacancies and decide how to respond to the judicial panel’s ruling. Its mission must be to pursue the most expedient path for getting new maps in place with the least possible disruption to the 2024 election cycle.

— Detroit News