LANSING, Mich. — After three of Michigan's redistricting commissioners resigned in the last week, the Department of State will decide on their replacements next month.
The Michigan Constitution requires that the three new commissioners are randomly selected from the pool of pervious semi-finalists chosen in 2020.
The 13-member Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) consists of four people affiliated with the Democratic Party, four people affiliated with the Republican Party, and five people who are not affiliated with either party.
The commission is tasked with fairly drawing the districts for state elections every 10 years and was created as a result of an amendment to the Michigan Constitution adopted by voters.
Two democrats and one republican will be selected to replace the commissioners to coincide with the party affiliation of the people who resigned.
On Wednesday, Dec. 20, Democratic Commissioner Dustin Witjes resigned, followed by Democratic Commissioner MC Rothhorn and Republican Commissioner Douglas Clark resigning on Tuesday, Dec. 26.
A pool of 200 commissioner semi-finalists randomly selected in June 2020 will be used to replace those who resigned. Of those 200 semi-finalists, 52 are affiliated with the Democratic Party and 54 are affiliated with the Republican Party.
The selection of the new commissioners will take place on a live stream on Wednesday, Jan. 3 at 3:30 p.m.
This will be the third time that the MICRC has filled a commissioner seat since the commission's inception in 2020.
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