November 30, 2011 (Issue 2011-52)

Earlier this year, the Governor signed redistricting legislation into law that established new State House of Representatives, State Senate, and U.S. Congressional Districts.  Following the official release of census information, counties created new County Commissioner Districts.  In addition, many jurisdictions are updating and redrawing their Wards (where applicable), Precincts, and Village Precincts (where applicable). (The redrawing of precincts is in accordance with MCL 168.656(3).)

BOE will update the QVF street index statewide to reflect the new district alignments between January and May of 2012 with your assistance.  The new Congressional, State House, and County Commissioner districts must be used for the first time to conduct the August 5, 2012 Primary. The new State Senate Districts will be used for the first time to conduct the August 2014 Primary.   While state law does not require cities and townships to complete precinct boundary changes until April of 2012, we encourage you to finalize any planned changes to new precinct boundaries immediately and provide the details requested in this document to the Bureau of Elections as soon as possible.  BOE will update the QVF Street Index in the order in which the changes are received.

BOE will update the street index for the following districts:

1.   U.S. Congressional Districts 

2.   State House of Representative Districts 

3.   State Senate Districts 

4.   County Commissioner Districts 

5.   Wards (where applicable) and Precincts 

6.   Village Precincts (where applicable)

Updating the QVF street index to reflect new district assignments is a massive undertaking.  In order to complete the required QVF street index changes in a timely manner, every city and township clerk must provide the following information to BOE by January 5, 2012: 

• The Old/New Precinct, District and Polling Location Change Form completed and signed by the city or township clerk even if there are no precinct changes. 
  • Important Note:  If your new Precinct, County Commissioner, State House, State Senate, US Congressional District boundaries do not follow any of the existing boundaries (i.e., School District, City, Township, Village, Zip Code, or the 2002 Legislative Districts and County Commissioner Districts), you will need to print out the QVF Street Index and denote which streets and address ranges belong to each new district.  Instructions are located in the Street Index Changes document.

Jurisdictions that have precinct changes must provide the following information to BOE by January 5, 2012 if at all possible: 

1.   Map showing Old Precinct Boundaries 

2.   Map showing New Precinct Boundaries 

3.   QVF Street Index printout denoting changes for Precincts, County Commissioner Districts, State House Districts, State Senate Districts, and US Congressional districts that split your precincts or jurisdictions. See the enclosed instructions with examples for submitting street index change documentation.  When a new election district splits your jurisdiction, please update your street index printout by marking the appropriate street name and address range with the new district information. If you are a clerk without QVF access, please have your county clerk provide you with your street index print out if needed.  If the new districts require many new street segments to be created or update, please use a word document or spreadsheet to provide those updates and staple these updates to the street index printout with which it is associated. 

4.   Official Resolution of Precinct Changes specifying each change and signed by the board.

If you have any other supporting details regarding your precinct changes not listed here (i.e., Electronic GIS files, detailed descriptions of the relationship between precincts, County Commissioner Districts, and Legislative Districts, etc.) please submit that information as well.

BOE has already received the following information from Counties and the Legislature (you do not need to provide this):

1.    U.S. Congressional Districts Map -received from Legislature.

2.    State House of Representatives Map- received from Legislature.

3.    State Senate Map -received from Legislature.

4.    Old and New County Commissioner District maps and resolutions-received from the County Clerks.

Please submit the information above to BOE as soon as possible. BOE will redistrict your QVF street index in the order in which we receive jurisdictional information.  BOE will contact you when we will begin updating your QVF street index with your submitted changes.  If you do not have any changes, we will not be contacting you and your jurisdiction will be considered redistricted.  Please refer to our website at www.michigan.gov/redistricting for additional details about this process (i.e., status of redistricting changes by jurisdiction, etc.)  If you have further questions about this process, please contact us by email at BOEredistricting@michigan.gov.