I wish them luck, even with the referendum it’s not easy
Here in Florida with a Republican majority we didn’t get fair districts until 4 years after the ballot measure passed . The Republicans and Rick Scott fought it tooth and nail using 20 million dollars of our tax money fighting it . Finally the Florida Supreme Court forced them to accept the district drawn up by the non partisan League of Women Voters.
Republicans are not interested in Democracy
"How we going to win if we don’t cheat?"
The other side of that is, of course, “How we going to cheat if we don’t win?”
Vote the bastards out.
¡Basta bastardos!
This has that fresh smell of democracy in action in order to protect democracy itself. More, please.
Good article. This action is long overdue but I’m encouraged to see so much activity ahead of the census. I still remember how depressed I felt after the 2010 election, understanding what the long term impact on Congressional districts would be.
One nitpicky point: Michigan is the Great Lakes (plural) State. There are 5 of those lakes, you know.
Fixing gerrymandering will help repair our government. By making legislators, in particular Republicans, more accountable to voters, they can’t keep going off the deep end to appeal to radical extremists. Obviously it’s bipartisan. I live in Illinois, which is gerrymandered to help Democrats. It’s just Republicans are ruthlessly more effective at it.
Let’s fix it!
Yeah, but only 4 of them border Michigan. 
So trump turns out to be a democratic sleeper agent after all?
Unwittingly (or in his case no-wittingly) so.
I come from Massachusetts, where we are as blue as can be. But I would like to see a non-partisan (or as close to it as we can get) commission draw district lines, even if it meant that we might get a Republican congressman somewhere in the state, and even though it might mean losing Joe Kennedy as my congressman. Democracy is too important to be left to partisan politics.
There were six of them for a short while, after Pat Leahy got Lake Champlain declared to be one of the Great Lakes. That lasted about an hour after it got some attention.
Although I am a partisan for the Dems (and I’d rather see them favored than the repugs) what I’d really like is to maximize the number of districts that are competitive. I think that will be best to keep our democracy healthy.
What does being surrounded by water rather than another state have to do with gerrymandering? Look at Hawaii it is completely surrounded by water. s/
This is true – but even 4 lakes are 2 more than are required for Michigan to call itself the Great Lakes State! 
I’d forgotten about that. I remember at the time looking up Lake Champlain on a map and laughing out loud. I mean, I’m sure Lake Champlain is a good lake and all, but it ain’t no Great Lake!!
Not sure what’s wrong with Colorado’s districts.
This sounds like a bad idea. Making elected officials concern themselves with voters will distract them from their important duties.
Here in PA, the efforts to create an independent citizen panel to handle the state legislative redistricting process are an extremely heavy lift for several reasons:
It requires a change in the state’s massive and cumbersome Constitution and the procedure requires:
(a) Passage of a bill in two successive sessions of the legislature. House and Senate bills must be absolutely identical in language in both years.
(b) Then a voter referendum on whether to adopt the change.
The legislature, over the years, has become heavily gerrymandered in favor of Republicans although in statewide races, the vote tends to be fairly even. Wth that advantage, the GOP has repeatedly worked to intensify its advantage through gerrymandering and its House Leader, Daryl Metcalfe is working overtime to make sure the latest effort fails.
His latest maneuver, just a couple of days ago, hold a hastily called meeting of his committee and then gut and replace the existing reform bill (722) with language that makes the redistricting process even more heavily political than it has been, and of course to the advantage of the Republicans. During the brief meeting, Metcalfe refused to respond to any questions from Democratic legislators about what was happening and refused to delay his actions to allow more time for the public to learn what was involved.
Metcalfe has been bombarded with public comments via phone calls, emails, petitions and demonstrations, calling for a fairer process. His response, “I’m not hearing much about that. The voters aren’t interested.”
Metcalfe himself directly benefits from the gerrymandering process. His House district (12) northeast of Pittsburgh, regularly returns him to office with margins of from 2/3 to as much as 3/4 of the vote.
And from Metcalfe’s perspective, delay is the only weapon he needs. If a reform bill fails to pass this year’s session, it will kill the entire process for an entire decade as far as effective change in advance of the 2020 redistricting process, leaving it in the hands of the majority GOP. That is because, as noted, any reform has to pass two sessions of the legislature and if it does not pass this year, it cannot go through the entire process in time for a voter referendum in advance of 2020.
Add to that the fact that even if that happens, the bills in House and Senate MUST be absolutely identical and passed on two successive years. Given the GOP’s iron grip on the Legislature, even if the measures moved forward, the potential for a “middle of the night” editorial tweak creating a textual difference between versions is always present.
The GOP is comfortable in using its gerrymandered advantages to preserve its power…a common stance at every level of government where they have control. They are, however, ignoring the fact that things can change and at some point in the future, they become the minority.
Fair districts are important to everyone, regardless of party. Without fairness, too many voters feel their vote has no value and don’t take part. And too many legislators, like Mr. Metcalfe, feel no reason at all to pay any attention to constituents who don’t agree with them or consider other opinions.
If you live in PA, now is the time to contact your state Senator and Representative and let them know you favor the versions of House 722 and Senate 22 being promoted by the interest group Fair Districts PA. https://www.fairdistrictspa.com/
Better yet, if you can, join hundreds of your fellow Pennsylvania citizens for a rally in Harrisburg set for next Monday, April 16th at the State Capitol rotunda and steps. We’ll be meeting with our elected representatives to express our support and rallying for fair legislation creating a truly independent citizen redistricting process.
Busses are organized from numerous cities and towns around the state and some have spaces available. Check the website and contact Fair Districts PA for more information.
Some lakes are born great, some lakes achieve greatness, and some lakes have greatness thrust upon them.
I’ve been advocating this for years. Most people do not appreciate the damage done to our democracy by all those Obama voters who sat out the 2010 election.
Both parties are compromised on this issue. These amendments should set up independent voter commissions to draw the lines with guidelines like Florida uses to stick as much as possible to existing city, county and geographical boundaries, equal in population, etc.
In the computer age, this is easily done, and I hope I get to vote on such an amendment here in Missouri.