'100% about race': Trial begins on legislative maps' impact on Black Detroit voters

KALAMAZOO — The first witness in a multi-day trial deciding the legality of Michigan's voting maps told judges Wednesday that the citizens commission tasked with drawing the maps was consistently pressured to lower the number of Black voters in Detroit-area House and Senate districts. Rebecca Szetela, a commissioner on Michigan's Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, told the three-judge panel in Kalamazoo that race and a poorly-supported goal to lower the percentage of Black voters in Metro Detroit districts became a driving factor for the commission's consultants and, by extension, ...