Michigan Chronicle
Vol. 85 – No. 7 | October 20-26, 2021
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Officials, Activists Sound Alarm on ‘Unacceptable’ Redistricting Maps By Andre Ash Citizens in Michigan voted in 2018 to get rid of gerrymandering in a referendum lead by the group Voter, Not Politicians. In previous years, gerrymandering allowed politicians to draw up maps to manipulate or cast favor to one political party or for election results they wanted. Starting in 2022, the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, a bipartisan group, will take on the role of drawing up new boundaries state-wide. According to the State of Michigan’s website, the commission’s mission is to “assure Michigan’s Congressional, State Senate and State House district lines are drawn fairly in a citizen lead, transparent process, meeting Constitutional mandates.” The criteria for reaching a fair and equitable standard calls on the commission to access equal population, adhere to the voting rights act, community interest and partisan fairness. Recently, elected officials and community activists gathered outside the Spirit of Detroit statue to call for change in the way the current commission is slicing and dicing the maps. Instead of politicians, the commission will decide the district boundaries on how citizens are represented on the state and congressional level. State Senator Adam Hollier, a Democrat, believes this commission has drafted maps that have cut up Detroit in an “unacceptable and untenable” way. “We need to maintain the number of majority-minority districts at every level which is two at the congressional level, five at the State Senate level, and 10 at the State House,” said Hollier. “We live in a state that has racially-polarized voting, which means people tend to vote for people in their same race.” “We find that these measures are being designed to keep us out of bound,” said Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP. “We find that these maps being formed are designed not to include us but to exclude us. These packs which were designed by racking, stacking, packing, are designed to keep us out”. Many of the attendees who chanted and sent a clear unified voice are calling for the drawing of maps that include more Black Detroiters as a part of the electorate. “You need to have folks who are going to represent you”, said Cynthia A. Johnson, State Representative, 5th District. “What they are attempting to do is dilute the weak vote that we have …if the maps are allowed to happen, we are not going to have representation, period!” Hollier argues the importance of communities of color having appropriate representation. He believes Detroiters and Black citizens will not have districts where they can elect the person of their choice, based on drafted maps by the commission.
See REDISTRICTING
MAPS page A2
WHAT’S INSIDE
Make Your Voice Heard – VOTE!
By Sherri Kolade
On Wednesday, October 6, Republicans in the Michigan Senate passed legislation once again that would make it increasingly difficult to vote with stringent requirements like a photo ID -among other things -- more would more than likely be vetoed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, WXYZ reported. The bill, slated to be revised and sent to the House over Democratic opposition, is now like a separate Republican-supported ballot action that could be enacted by GOP lawmakers without Whitmer’s veto if enough signatures are collected, according to the article. The regular legislation would need potential absentee voters to include their driver’s license number, state ID number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Democrats (along with at least some House Republicans) disagree and think it is more than what is needed — presently all that is required is signing the application. “We have a system here that’s secure. We have a system here that’s dependable. This is about restricting voting. It’s about making it more difficult,” Sen. Jeff Irwin, an Ann Arbor Democrat, said in the article. Michigan Democratic Black Caucus Chair Keith Williams (which works to elect Democrats across the state, while holding Republicans accountable across the board) said that this is just one example of many that the powers that be used to prevent minority communities from voting. Williams, 65, talked to the Michigan Chronicle about discouraging tactics like voter suppression and how it is
used to prevent people from voting and making their voice heard, which is important he said. “If you don’t vote you don’t have a voice and you become part of the problem instead of the solution,” Williams said. “When you look around the country and see people trying to suppress the vote and they don’t want you to vote that should make you want to vote. That is why it is important to vote -- people died for the right to vote. Black people, for the right to vote, people hung on trees... they put us through a lot.” Michigan Republicans have continuously attempted to actively suppress Black and Brown Michiganders’ votes for nearly two decades. Years earlier in 2004, former Republican Senator Papageorge told the Detroit Free Press that Republicans had to “suppress“ the Detroit vote to succeed in that year‘s elections. Even with the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump claimed that Michigan (ahem, Detroit) did not count the ballots properly and legal battles (and smear campaigns from Trump) have since ensued despite the fact that Black Detroit voters helped President Joe Biden claim his spot in the Oval Office. During the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s Let It Be Known Facebook live event on Wednesday, October 13, Cedric Richmond, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, spoke and said that voter suppression is not always occurring in one particular way. “What we have to remember is voter suppression happens in several ways: one is what they are doing in the legislature-- creating barriers to voting whether [with] voter ID or in other measures,”
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Williams said that keeping the momentum going means getting younger people pulling up the rear. “I truly believe we need to start them young so they get an understanding of civics -- civics runs the local, state, federal government,” Williams said. “When I was in college, I voted for the first time in 1967, I was like 19 years old or 20... when I got to college my parameters and mind opened to another way of thinking.” Voting rights are universal rights that all people should have equal access to. “Black folks and Hispanics – we’ve been carrying elections for the last 50 years and everybody benefits from our participation,” Williams said. “This political process, human civil rights -- what they’re doing... if we don’t participate, they don’t have to worry about us if we participate. They know we can win if we get out the vote.” Williams added that voting at the local level is as important as at the national level because the federal money comes down the pipeline and local governments have tax dollars used for community needs based on where voted-in politicians send those funds. “All that stuff is important to control your destiny,” he said. “If you don’t control the power, you don’t control the government.” “Voting is a right and we have to make it right when we vote. We can do this if we just keep our eyes on the prize.”
Pandemic Voting: New Regulations, Same Oppression By Megan Kirk
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Richmond said. “The other way is to use misinformation to persuade people that voting doesn’t matter. We are seeing that more and more.”
cation require when voting, those who are missing a valid form of identification have the right to vote and for their vote to be accepted. In this case, voters must sign an affidavit stating their identity.
Election season is nearing once again and voting during the pandemic is becoming a highly-discussed issue. Though the 2020 election boasted record-breaking numbers, the pandemic created a unique set of barriers in voting. This season, as the ballot boxes heat up voters are pressing their way to make their voices heard by any means necessary. African Americans have always had to fight for their right to vote. From its inception, voting for Black people included various laws and regulations that kept African Americans from polls. Recently, new laws threaten the Black vote in a historically similar way. As Black voters came out in massive numbers for the 2020 election, lawmakers went back to the table to create stricter guidelines for voting. Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Texas have all led the charge in enacting strict and cumbersome voting laws in response to former
president Donald Trump’s unceremonious exit from power. After rants of vote tampering, these states, along with 15 others have implemented approximately 33 laws that would create barriers for voters. Under these laws, there is now a shorter window to apply for a mail-in ballot, votes can be purged or thrown away, eliminating food and water for those standing in line to vote, increasing voters per precinct and harsher identification guidelines. In Michigan, while there is an identifi-
Black voters in Black neighborhoods often see longer lines and worse voting conditions than their counterparts. Targeting these communities, new voting laws may have a larger scaled impact on African American communities. With traditionally low voter turnout, Black communities across the country showed there is power in numbers. Despite the pandemic, voters, Black voters in particular, continued to press their way towards. Democratic expression. Michigan is among the states who, for now, has kept their voting regulations largely the same. While Michigan state republicans are pushing to overhaul ID requirements, voting in Michigan remains unchanged. In early Oc-
See PANDEMIC
VOTING page A2