Possible Appeal to Marquette County Re-Districting

There’s fallout tonight among the Marquette County Board about the re–drawing of the county board district lines.

The lines for the next 10 years were voted on and approved on Friday.

Some residents have spoken out as being especially unhappy.

Tonight, Marquette County Board member Bill Nordeen proposed paying a Marquette law firm to look into a legal appeal.

Nordeen says he’ll be speaking with Kendricks, Bordeau, Chilman, Adamini & Greenlee tomorrow about that.

Michigan law requires the lines to be re–drawn every 10 years, according to census data.

The state’s population as a whole is dropping, but Marquette county has increased in population since 2000.

Nordeen says that would suggest the county would at least retain its nine districts, if not add to that up to its state-mandated limit of 21.

But the Apportionment Commission decided to cut the number to six, and Nordeen wonders if it’s a sort of political retaliation.

Every time the districts are re-drawn, the new districts must be almost identical in population, respect city and township borders as much as possible, keep voting precincts intact as much as possible and be as square as possible in shape.