A group of concerned citizens are looking to change the way the state draws up its voting districts — but they need the help of Michiganders to do so.

Zane Lankford, a representative with the organization Voters Not Politicians, stopped by last week’s meeting of the Cass County Board of Commissioners to inform them of the group’s efforts to amend the state constitution in order to “transfer political power back to the people and away from the politicians.” The committee is currently circulating petitions across Michigan in hopes of placing a proposal on the 2018 midterm election ballot, which would create a citizen panel to control redistricting, in an effort to eliminate perceived gerrymandering from that state legislature.

Lankford said she is one of many people volunteering their efforts to circulate petitions in counties throughout the state. The organization needs more than 315,000 signatures in order to get an initiative on the November 2018 ballot, Lankford said.

The organization’s proposal calls for an amendment to the Michigan Constitution that would create an independent, nonpartisan commission consisting of 13 people — four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents — who will be selected at random from a pool of 200 possible candidates, comprised of people who mirror the demographics of the state. This body would be in charge of selecting new voting districts following the competition of the national census.

To create the new districts, the board would host 10 public hearings prior to proposing new maps, as well as five additional hearings after the maps have been drafted, Lankford said. The board’s entire business would be done in public sessions, and the public would also have access to all the maps and data the commission uses for its work.

“This is how democracy should work: the voters choose the politicians, not the politicians choosing the voters,” Lankford said.

Voters Not Politicians launched its campaign earlier this year, and has hosted more than 40 town halls and other events to listen to concerns from citizens.

Lankford said the organization’s efforts are designed to combat gerrymandering, a term that refers to the practice of politicians redrawing voting districts in order to ensure they or their political allies represent voters who will continue to re-elect them.

Right now, the Michigan Legislature conducts voter redistricting, which is scheduled to take place following the completion of the U.S. Census in 2020. Lankford said that many districts in Michigan have been drawn up in ways to include certain voters and exclude others — as long as the districts constitute one contiguous region, that is perfectly acceptable under current laws.

“It doesn’t really represent the people in that area,” Lankford said. “It represents the voters that will choose that politician.”

Cass County Chief Judge Susan Dobrich, who was in attendance during the commissioners’ meeting, said that, while she supported making changes to the way the state’s voting districts are created, she was not sure that a group of randomly selected citizens would have the ability to effectively draw up new ones. Dobrich mentioned that she has experience herself in the redistricting process, as she helped create new boundaries at the county level in 2010.

“It’s really complex,” the judge said. “It’s a really difficult process to sit down and do. To just randomly select people across the state, it’s a pretty big function for those individuals to do. It’s a huge [responsibility].”

Lankford said the commission would have support from mathematicians and representatives of communities across the state to help them during the redistricting process to reduce the burden.

“It will also be open to the public, so if they really mess up, they will be able to express themselves,” she said.

For more information about the campaign, people may visit votersnotpoliticians.com.