Michigan Proposal 18-2 was a ballot initiative approved by voters in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

as part of the 2018 United States elections. The proposal was created in preparation of the 2020 United States census, to move control of

redistricting Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each ten-year census. The U.S. Constitution in Art ...

from the

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to an independent commission. The commission consists of thirteen members selected randomly by the secretary of state: four affiliated with Democrats, four affiliated with Republicans, and five independents. Any Michigan voter can apply to be a commissioner, as long as they have not been, in the last six years, a politician or lobbyist. Proponents argued that Michigan's current districts are gerrymandered, giving an unfair advantage to the Republican Party. Opponents argued that the process would give the secretary of state too much power over redistricting, and that the people on the commission would be unlikely to understand principles of redistricting. The proposal was approved with 61.28% of the vote.

History

Background

Michigan House of Representatives Election 2016 - Results by District

Following the 2010 midterms in Michigan, Republicans controlled the Michigan state government, and therefore controlled redistricting. The districts they created were gerrymandered to give a partisan advantage to Republicans. In the

2012 Michigan House of Representatives election The 2012 Michigan House of Representatives elections were held on November 6, 2012, with partisan primaries to select the parties' nominees in the various districts on August 7, 2012. The Republican Party retained its majority in the House of ...

, Democrats won 53.97% of the vote, compared to 46.03% for Republicans. Despite this, Republicans won 59 seats, to Democrats' 51. A similar result occurred in 2016, with a nearly even vote (49.2%–49.13%) leading to a 16-seat advantage for Republicans. In 2019, the districts for the Michigan House, Michigan Senate, and United States House of Representatives were ruled as unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering.

Ballot access

Proposal 18-2 was a citizen-led ballot initiative, supported by the

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organization Voters Not Politicians, founded by Katie Fahey. Voters Not Politicians organized the collection of more than 425,000 signatures from registered Michigan voters to allow the proposal to appear on the ballot.

The proposal appeared on the ballot as follows:

Results

The proposal was passed easily, requiring a simple majority. Washtenaw, Ingham, and Marquette counties had the highest percentage of yes vote, while Missaukee, Montmorency, Sanilac, and

Osceola Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Vsse Yvholv in Muscogee language, Creek, also spelled Asi-yahola), named Billy Powell at birth, was an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfa ...

counties had the highest percentage of no vote. The proposal passed in 67 of Michigan's 83 counties with strong support across the state.

Post-election events

2020 redistricting

250,000 applications to serve on the commission were randomly mailed out by the Michigan secretary of state on December 30, 2019. More than 6,200 Michiganders applied to be part of the redistricting commission before the June 1, 2020, deadline. 200 semi-finalists were selected at random by the accounting firm Rehmann LLC by the end of June. The commission finished drawing maps for the State House,

State Senate In the United States, the state legislature is the legislative branch in each of the 50 U.S. states. A legislature generally performs state duties for a state in the same way that the United States Congress performs national duties at ...

, and US House in December 2021. On March 23, 2022, a group of nineteen African-American Detroiters who live in thirteen different Michigan House and Senate districts in portions of Detroit sued the MICRC for violating the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. On December 21, 2023, a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan determined in ''Agee v. Benson'' that the MICRC "overwhelmingly - indeed, inescapably" drew the boundaries of the plaintiffs' districts predominantly on the basis for race. The three-judge panel enjoined further use of the Michigan House and Michigan Senate maps drawn by the MICRC and ordered the maps to be redrawn.

2022 elections

The commission's new maps went into effect for the 2022 elections. The redrawn maps were seen as instrumental for Democratic victories in the State House and

, taking control of the latter for the first time since 1984.

References

{{reflist Michigan Proposal 2 Michigan ballot proposals Redistricting in the United States Proposal 2 U.S. state constitutional amendments