County Apportionment Commission

2011 Reapportionment Meeting Information | Public Comment Form

In 1968 the United States Supreme Court ruled the representation of citizens in a county legislative body must be, as is the case in the US. House of Representatives, based on equality. Therefore, each commissioner in a county must represent as equal number of citizens in each district as can be determined through the US census figures and that apportioning process must take place after each dicennial census. To that end the Michigan Legislature passed several laws outlining how that process is to take place in each county and establishing the County Apportionment Commission.

The county apportionment commission shall consist of the county clerk, the county treasurer, the prosecuting attorney, and the statutory county chairperson of each of the 2 political parties receiving the greatest number of votes cast for the office of secretary of state in the last preceding general election. The clerk shall convene the apportionment commission and they shall adopt their rules of procedure. Three members of the apportionment commission shall be a quorum sufficient to conduct its business. All action of the apportionment commission shall be by majority vote of the commission. The business which the apportionment commission may perform shall be conducted at a public meeting held in compliance with Act No. 267 of the Public Acts of 1976, being sections 15.261 to 15.275 of the Michigan Compiled Laws. Public notice of the time, date, and place of the meeting shall be given in the manner required by Act No. 267 of the Public Acts of 1976. A writing prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by the commission in the performance of an official function shall be made available to the public in compliance with Act No. 442 of the Public Acts of 1976, being sections 15.231 to 15.246 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.The responsibility of the apportionment commission shall be to divide the county into districts which shall be single-member districts and as nearly of equal population as is practicable. The latest official published figures of the United States official census shall be used in this determination, except that in cases requiring division of official census units to meet the population standard, an actual population count may be used to make such division. Other governmental census figures of total population may be used if taken subsequent to the last decennial United States census and the United States census figures are not adequate for the purposes of this act. The secretary of state shall furnish the latest official published figures to the county apportionment commissions forthwith upon this act taking effect, and within 15 days after publication of subsequent United States official census figures. A contract may be entered into with the United States census bureau to make any special census if the latest United States decennial census figures are not adequate.

All districts shall be contiguous.

All districts shall be as compact and of as nearly square shape as is practicable, depending on the geography of the county area involved.

No township or part thereof shall be combined with any city or part thereof for a single district, unless such combination is needed to meet the population standard.

Townships, villages and cities shall be divided only if necessary to meet the population standard.

Precincts shall be divided only if necessary to meet the population standard.

Residents of state institutions who cannot by law register in the county as electors shall be excluded from any consideration of representation.

Districts shall not be drawn to effect partisan political advantage.

Along with these statutory provisions, it is the responsibility of the Apportionment Commission to determine the number of county commissioners for the next 10 years. There have been numerous court cases which have further defined the process of apportionment and have clarified the issue of equal representation in conjunction with the criteria listed above.