House panel backs bill to add partisan-fairness metrics to county redistricting; 6-2 vote

The House Elections Committee voted 6-2 to report House Bill 6171, a measure that would change how Michigan counties draw and apportion county commission districts by elevating partisan fairness and requiring objective metrics in the map-drawing process.

Representative Phil Skaggs, the bill sponsor, told the committee the legislation aims to "fix the system" by moving overall county partisan fairness near the top of redistricting criteria after compliance with the Voting Rights Act and district contiguity. "Gerrymandering is bad," Skaggs said, arguing that single-party county commissions can leave sizable minorities with no representation and reduce transparency and accountability.

Skaggs and supporters described the bill as a way to ensure county commissions reflect the electorate. "One of the things that this bill does is put partisan fairness overall county partisan fairness as one of the leading criteria to be considered so that the county commission looks like what the voters intended when they went out to vote," Skaggs said.

An academic witness credited by the sponsor told the committee the bill uses tested quantitative measures to detect and limit entrenched maps.…