Eligible Michigan residents can now apply to help draw the state’s next political district maps.

During press conferences in Detroit and Lansing Thursday, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Voters Not Politicians Executive Director Nancy Wang and other officials announced the online application to serve on the 13-member commission is now live, and promised ongoing efforts to raise awareness until the application window closes June 1, 2020.

The commission, created with the adoption of a 2018 ballot initiative backed by Voters Not Politicians, will ultimately be made up of four Democrats, four Republicans and five unaffiliated independents. Sixty one percent of voters backed the initiative at the ballot box.

Competition for the slots will likely be stiff - under the new constitutional language, the Secretary of State is required to mail applications to a minimum of 10,000 randomly selected Michigan voters.

Benson said she’s hoping to send out more than that, depending on budget constraints, and said the department’s already received at least 100 applications since the process opened Thursday morning.

The Secretary of State will partner with philanthropic groups around the state to host workshops, air public service announcements on television and encourage prospective applicants to apply, Benson said.

This PSA will be aired around the state, Benson said, and there will also be workshops for prospective applicants with questions. pic.twitter.com/hcpXy7sPNY — Lauren Gibbons (@LaurenMGibbons) October 24, 2019

Secretary of State branches will also provide free notary services to help applicants meet the notary requirement added by the department to verify applications are accurate.

The overall goal is to get the message across that every eligible resident has an opportunity to serve, Benson said.

“We don’t want anyone to feel that their voice isn’t informed enough to play a role in this process,” Benson said. “That’s the purpose of the public workshops, to demistify the process and ensure that citizens around the state feel that they deserve to have a seat at the table.”

There are several limitations to who is allowed to apply - an issue at the heart of a lawsuit against the commission supported by the Michigan Republican Party. The suit argues standards set for participants violate rights to freedom of association, because political parties are blocked from choosing representatives to serve on the commission.

A Michigan voter would be ineligible to serve if one of these criteria applied to them in the last six years:

They were a candidate for a partisan office, or an elected official holding partisan office

They worked as a registered lobbyist, or as an employee of one

They worked as a consultant or employee of a partisan official or candidate, or for a political action committee

They were an officer for a political party

They were employed by the legislature or were an unclassified state employee

They are immediate family members of anyone who is ineligible based on the above criteria

Asked about the ongoing suit, Benson said she believes the state is solid in its legal grounding, adding, “I believe that our responsibility is to further the will of the people that was very clear when they spoke last November to amend their constitution.”

After the application process closes, the applications will be statistically weighted to match Michigan’s geographic and demographic makeup.

From there, a pool of 200 finalists will be randomly selected out of those who applied with an open application and those who were randomly mailed applications by the Secretary of State.

After that, party leaders in the Michigan legislature will have an opportunity to review the finalists.

Once seated, the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission will be responsible for drawing political district maps for the legislature and Congress, a task previously handled by the Michigan legislature.

From fall 2020 through fall 2021, the commission will work on redrawing maps based on results from the 2020 census, and are required to follow a series of criteria, including complying with federal requirements, making districts geographically contiguous, keeping communities of interest together and not favoring any political party or candidate for office.

The commission is required to host at least 15 public hearings throughout the drafting process, and needs to adopt the maps by Nov. 1, 2021.

The maps will be in effect for the 2022 election cycle.

Each commissioner will be paid for their work, and is required to receive at least 25 percent of what the governor makes annually - that currently works out to about $40,000 per year.

To apply or to learn more information about the redistricting commission, visit RedistrictingMichigan.org.

Related links:

Want to draw Michigan’s next political district maps? Here’s what you need to know

Michigan residents can weigh in on application for independent redistricting commission

Michigan Republican Party files new federal lawsuit to stop redistricting commission

Budget plan would shift control of Michigan’s independent redistricting commission to legislature