Everyone in Macomb County knows that one major division in the county is M-59.

Milford and other southern and western Oakland townships and cities just don’t make sense going so far north as the Thumb.

Milford and other southern and western Oakland townships and cities just don’t make sense going so far north in the Thumb.

I am a Southfield resident and like that this map connects Southfield/Lathrup with parts of Detroit. However, it breaks up African-American citizens in the cities of Southfield and Lathrup Village from Oak Park. These communities comprise a contiguous COI under the current Redistricting rules, sharing significant cultural, historical, economic and other interests, and should be kept intact in one Congressional voting district, per the Southfield Deltas map #c4774 submitted to the public comment portal. It is important to keep this COI together in order to avoid dilution of the Black vote.

Contiguity correction: https://districtr.org/plan/71513

https://districtr.org/plan/71511 - Here is a plan with 2 districts with majority-minority voting age population of black voters at 47.8% for each of the 2 districts. This will comply with VRA in MI requiring 2 districts with majority-minority of black voters.

Here is a plan that creates 2 majority-minority districts at 46.1% while keeping the Chaldean district intact! This is based on Birch Plan. https://districtr.org/plan/71412

Here is an alternate version of the Birch map that I include Mount Clemens: https://districtr.org/plan/70832. This map is also good for the Chaldean community. Please use a similar district 6 to either https://districtr.org/plan/69597 or https://districtr.org/plan/70832 to give Chaldeans a voice! Thank you commissioners! :)

Please use a map similar to this one: https://districtr.org/plan/70686. I based this map on Mrs. Rebecca Szetela's Birch map. Please give Chaldean community a voice in one district! Include cities of Farmington Hills, West Bloomfield, Bloomfield Twp, Troy, Rochester Hills, Sterling Heights and Shelby Twp together. That's were most of the Chaldean community are. Thank you commissioners for listening!

Please do not disenfranchise the Chaldean people. Please use district 6 similar to this: https://districtr.org/plan/69597. Thank you commissioners.

See my comment on the Birch map, which has the same District 5 as this map. Thank you.

Updated https://districtr.org/plan/69597. Fixed some Municipality boundaries. Max deviation is 0.09% the lowest. Asian community is at 10.8%, the highest compared to the 4 proposed maps. I implore commissioners to consider Chaldean community a voice in one district. Thank you commissioners for your hard work! :)

Not an entirely unreasonable map. Like that Southfield was grouped more strongly with Detroit. The Indian and Asian communities in Rochester Hills are separated from those in Troy, Bloomfield, and elsewhere - I'd like to see those communities put back together in a revised map.

Updated: https://districtr.org/plan/69582. Took Municipality lines into account. Please give a Chaldeans a voice! We have been in MI for 100+ years now and have contributed to the great state of MI. Chaldeans own 25,000+ businesses in MI. Give us our one district so we can have a voice please! Thank you commissioners!

https://districtr.org/plan/69495. I updated the map here with the lowest population deviation out of the 4 proposed maps.

Please look at this map. https://districtr.org/plan/69480. I based it on Mr. Anthony Eid's Juniper map. This one gives Chaldeans a voice in suburbs of Detroit. We are around 80,000-100,000 in my proposed district 6 of the map I shared. It also gives Asians 10.8% population share, the highest out of the 4 proposed maps. In District 3 it gives blacks 22.8% which is the highest of District 3 out of the 4 proposed maps. Please consider giving Chaldeans a voice in one district. Thank you commissioners for your hard work!

Please look at this map. https://districtr.org/plan/69480. I based it on Mr. Anthony Eid's Juniper map. This one gives Chaldeans a voice in suburbs of Detroit. We are around 80,000-100,000 in my proposed district 6 of the map I shared. It also gives Asians 10.8% population share, the highest out of the 4 proposed maps. In District 3 it gives blacks 22.8% which is the highest of District 3 out of the 4 proposed maps. Please consider giving Chaldeans a voice in one district. Thank you commissioners for your hard work!

I appreciate the commission consistently placing the Tri-Cities (Midland, Bay City, Saginaw) and Flint in a congressional district as they are urban/suburban areas and should have appropriate representation. I would like to see more of Midland County in this district like Commissioner Eid’s map #237. Please continue to weigh partisan fairness and correct the Republican lean most maps have. We need maps with as close to zero political bias as possible.

I appreciate the commission consistently placing the Tri-Cities (Midland, Bay City, Saginaw) and Flint in a congressional district as they are urban/suburban areas and should have appropriate representation. I would like to see more of Midland County in this district like Commissioner Eid’s map #237. Please continue to weigh partisan fairness and correct the Republican lean most maps have. We need maps with as close to zero political bias as possible.

Copy of my in-person testimony 10/22. I’m Dorothy Munson, a lifelong resident of Grand Rapids, representing Proactive, a non-partisan, non-profit organization supporting underserved folks. We strongly advocated for prop 2. We are depending on you to make sure the maps of west Michigan are fair and they need work to do so. The best congressional map is Apple 201 with Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo in District 4. It best represents minority populations in West Michigan with 31% being non-white. They need representation in Washington. It has significant commonality including being leaders in education, healthcare and research. I have made more detailed comments on the map. Please understand that we are truly depending on you to protect partisan fairness. We know this process is most difficult. Better than what we have now is not good enough. We look to you to be our heros in getting this right and following the constitution to finally give everyone fair representation. Thank you!

The percent of African Americans in the district does not reflect the percentage of African Americans in the city of Farmington Hills.

Milford does not belong with the thumb

While I like that Midland is included with the cities to our south, I would prefer that you include the townships directly adjacent to Midland and put the rural townships in Tuscola county in a different district. That would also make the district more compact and be a plus for partisan fairness. The idea that the "watershed" should be kept together shows a misunderstanding that flooding due to poor infrastructure is a statewide and national problem. Also, this is a district for representation at the FEDERAL level, not the state.

The economic, social, and political challenges that face rural communities vary greatly from those of urban and even mid-small cities. Add to that, there are now dozens of initiatives all aimed at creating a “Great Lakes Bay” environment. For these reasons, I LOVE that this map is re-districting lines to account for Midland-BayCity-Saginaw to be a “clump” while posturing the rural portions of all three counties divided into congressional districts that will be fair and impartial to these areas as well. Given that logic, I’m not comfortable with the distance into the Thumb, however, I am so grateful for the work of this commission to create fairness in our regional, political systems.

The positive of this map is that the Macomb county community of interest in this map is kept together. One glaring problem in this map is partisan fairness. Using the 2016 Presidential election data (50-50), this map will produce a 8-5 Republican split which is completely unfair. Likewise using 2018 AG data (52-48 D), this map gives 7-6 Republicans even though they lost. I urge you to use this map as a basis but move toward greater partisan fairness.

This map attempts to break up the Great Lakes Bay Region by separating Midland City. The Business community in Midland, including 3 fortune 500, have spent millions promoting the the business opportunities in Midland as part of the Great Lakes Bay Region. Separating Midland be economically bad for supporting new businesses coming to Midland City.

When I voted in support of establishing this commission I did so in the hope (but also frankly the expectation) that I would see exactly what has been going on here – thoughtful dialog, civic engagement, and commitment to democratic process in re-working our political representation within our state. I’ve followed the process fairly closely and have found it interesting reading the comments and getting a chance to see where priorities and preferences are when establishing these lines. Some seem to prefer keeping current D/R voting blocks together, while others prefer joining communities of similar size, style or economic backgrounds together. I think any realist at the start of all this would accept that this wouldn’t be an easy process, but I hope we can all appreciate that ultimately the end result will have been made better for all the effort and engagement. From my perspective, first I want to say ‘thank you’ to the inaugural commission for your efforts. And also, to offer some encouragement - stay at it, keep working and engaging with all of us! I would also like to add in my support of several comments that have been posted in here encouraging commissioners to avoid drawing lines that would create “safe zones” for either political party. While tempting and easy to garner support in grouping like minds together, it would further harden political divisions, and encourage LESS dialog between those individuals who have differing political opinions. Big picture we are better served as a whole by keeping communities/counties/townships together, following natural boundaries, and as a general rule keeping in simple.

: I appreciate the commission consistently placing the Tri-Cities (Midland, Bay City, Saginaw) and Flint in a congressional district as they are urban/suburban areas and should have appropriate representation. I would like to see more of Midland County in this district like Commissioner Eid’s map #237. Please continue to weigh partisan fairness and correct the Republican lean most maps have. We need maps with as close to zero political bias as possible.

Thank you for combining Livingston County with Ingham County in this version of Congressional District 5. Residents of Livingston County are used to going to Ingham County for work, school, medical care, and more. But overall this map needs more work. Your job was to get rid of the Republican gerrymandered maps we have lived with for decades and you haven't gotten there yet. Your maps still favor Republicans even though your consultant told you that Michigan leans Democratic. Michigan voters set up your commission and you were hired to fix maps that lean Republican in a Democratic state. Please finish the job. Make the maps reflect the partisan makeup of the state. Thank you for all your hard work.

Rochester and Rochester Hills should be placed in district 10 and give district 6 going east to algonac. Keep New Baltimore in district 10. That would be the modification i would suggest. You have an opportunity to make 6 more moderate. Furthermore, by going east to Algonac into 6 you take away some conservative territory away from 10.

I do Like this map over all the best, Put Midland and Flint together in district 11. I do think it would make district 6 more moderate if you gave it going east to algonac from district 10. Then Put Rochester and Rochester from 6 into 10 Instead.

For the most part, I like this map for what's been done with keeping most of SE Oakland County together and keeping Warren and Centerline with Macomb County, however, I feel that Southfield belongs in District 3, not district 2. It has much more in common with Oakland County than with Wayne County. It should not be broken off from Oakland.

Huron County is split from Tuscola County and the Tri Cities area here. Our shopping, business, and medical alignments are with Saginaw and Bay City. It would make much more sense to keep Huron with the Tri Cities.

I don't think this is worst choice, but it isn't the best either. No map can get everything "right", but Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo are big enough that it should be possible to create a district that reflects their voters, and this map doesn't.

The Metro Detroit map is better here than in most other Congressional maps the commission has considered so I commend you for that. However, there is no reason to cross Dequindre Road to put Rochester/Rochester Hills into an otherwise Macomb based seat. Just put Macomb Township in the Macomb district and the Rochester area in the Oakland to thumb based seat.