LANSING, Mich. — The Lansing Election Commission has endorsed a plan that would move two south side neighborhoods and one on the far northern edge of the city into different City Council wards.
It now goes to the City Council for final approval.
“This would not be in effect for this election, it will go into effect in future election,” City Clerk Chris Swope said.
The reapportionment plan is meant to put voters closer to bigger polling places and to ensure that each Council ward has a roughly equal population, he said.
“This is all done just so we have equal representation on City Council,” Swope said.
Reapportionment is something that Lansing does every 10 years after the census. Swope said the city has made it a priority since 1960.
“If you look at the city way back, the city of Lansing had a lot more wards and they had very unequal population,” he said. “A lot of folks had better representation than others. So, we just want to make sure everyone is equally represented.”
With the plan, Ward 1 would gain almost 430 voters, ward 3 would loses more than 400 voters and Ward 4 would lose about 25 voters.
“There’s an area just south of the South Washington office complex, they actually right now vote at Elmhurst. This will move that group to the fourth ward and they would vote here at South Washington,” Swope said. “There’s a community right across the street from our facility that currently votes at the Bread House church, that would move them to voting here and then there’s a portion on the north, that is part of the fourth ward and will become part of the first ward.”
If it’s passed by council, the plan is expected to impact around 3,000 voters.
