The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission took public comments at a meeting in Benton Township Thursday evening as it prepares to redraw the state’s legislative district maps. The body was created by a vote of the people in 2018 to reduce gerrymandering, and requests heard on Thursday included balancing lakeshore communities and more rural areas in the vicinity to ensuring diversity is respected. The commission has been hearing from the public for months, and member Rebecca Szetela told WSJM News every bit of input it gets is taken seriously.
“Our next step is to compile all of the different public comments that we’ve received and to evaluate where we’ve received feedback and maps, and start to come up with ideas as to where those communities of interest are that we’ve been hearing about from the public,” Szetela said. “At this point, we are still awaiting census data, but we are planning on starting to draw maps with the data we do have form the American Community Survey and pother data that’s out there.”