Voters Allege Redistricting Commission is Hiding, Deleting Public Comments
Alleged Deletions the Latest Transparency Crisis for Public Commission
LANSING, MI, September 28, 2021 – Multiple Michigan residents today accused staff and commissioners with Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission of hiding or deleting critical public comments submitted online.
The accusations came during the public comment period of today’s Commission hearing, from residents who’d previously submitted comments online and whose comments have since apparently been removed from the public record.
“Voters’ accusation that the Redistricting Commission is deleting formal public comments is incredibly concerning,” said Tony Daunt, Executive Director of FAIR Maps. “The Commission remains one of the least transparent public bodies in Michigan. With the numerous and repeated last-minute changes to their agendas, failure to provide documents and maps in a timely fashion and charging hundreds of thousands of dollars to access their emails, to name just a few examples, this commission has made a mockery of the promise of transparency voters were guaranteed in 2018. To make matters worse, rather than working to address these important concerns, their Communications Director, Ed Woods III, has focused his fire on the free press by publicly blasting members of the media for simply doing their jobs.
“Voters deserve an answer from the Commission – today – about why it’s allegedly deleting citizen input from the public record. Every single public comment the Commission has removed must be restored to the public record immediately.”
FAIR Maps participates in every aspect of Michigan’s redistricting process to achieve FAIR – Fair and Independent Redistricting – plans that appropriately reflect the diversity of Michigan’s population and the communities where they live.
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