By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Livingston County residents are being encouraged to get familiar with their new voting districts before election time.

New Michigan voting district maps have gone into effect and officials have been working to update the voter rolls. Despite ongoing litigation, the Bureau of Elections and Secretary of State are making the necessary changes to the qualified voter file – the database that ties cities and townships to statewide voter registration files. One lawsuit is still making its way through the proper channels, while another was thrown out by the Michigan Supreme Court.

Quentin Turner is the program director with Common Cause Michigan. He says for many people, their district lines may not have changed all that much. "But for a good portion of Michiganders, especially when it comes to our congressional districts, they're potentially in a brand new district, which is going to have new representation after this coming election in 2022".

Turner noted that voters are more tuned in though to this year's redistricting cycle than they have been in the past. "Just by the nature of the commission being citizen-led and responsible to the citizens, folks are paying a lot more attention to the work that they're doing and how their maps are going to affect our upcoming elections".

Turner added that residents who are curious about whether their districts have changed can go to the Secretary of State's website to find out but Common Cause also has a lookup tool that lists all elected officials based on a person’s residential address.

The deadline for candidates to file to run for office in Michigan in the new districts is tomorrow. The state primary is on August 2nd, and the General Election is November 8th.

Newsservice.org contributed to this report.