Washtenaw County Redistricting
Elected Senators and Representatives have power over taxes and budgets.In each district, voters elect their Senators and Representatives.
If you control the district lines, you control who gets elected to power over taxes.
The federal census population is the basis for apportioning 435 federal representatives, as well as Michigan's 38 state senators and 110 state representatives.
Prior to 2020, Michigan's Legislature chose their own district lines.
Corrupt redistricting was routine..
In 2018, A citizen-led ballot petition created Michigan's Proposal 2, which took districting authority away from the legislature and gave it to a citizen committee.
In December of 2020, the citizen committee created new congressional, state house and state senate districts for the 2022 elections.The committee's authority does NOT include courts, school districts, county commissions or any of the other overlapping political districts.
Redistricting created a LOT of change in Washtenaw County:
1. The entire county will be inside a single new Congressional District (it had been split over two, previously)
2. The county will keep two state senate districts, but both will extend outside the county:
The largest stretches west into Jackson (instead of north into Livingston).
The smallest spills over into Monroe and Lenawee (instead of stopping at the county border).
3. There will be SEVEN state house districts in the county (instead of four),
and only one - Ypsilanti - is entirely inside Washtenaw County (instead of all of them stopping at the county border). Ann Abor will quartered into north-south-east-west house districts (instead of halved into northern and southern).