With a little help from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Walter Sorg, a committee representative with “Voters Not Politicians” helped to explain how gerrymandering can manipulate a voting district’s boundaries, giving a politician an advantage in an election. Sorg gave an informational presentation Thursday night at the Niles District Library.

In a short video clip, former California Gov. Schwarzenegger talked about his advocacy against gerrymandering.

“Gerrymandering can be terminated,” Schwarzenegger quipped.

Sorg showed the more than a dozen residents who attended how this could be achieved.

The nonpartisan group “Voters Not Politicians” will be starting a petition drive for a 2018-ballot proposal. The goal is to amend the Michigan Constitution to create a citizen-controlled system for drawing voting districts.

To accomplish this, “Voters Not Politicians” must collect at least 315,654 signatures for a petition to first put the issue of gerrymandering on the ballot. The group has 180- consecutive days to begin collecting signatures. They will seek to collect 400,000 signatures to be safe. This breaks down to 12,000 signatures a week. Sorg said he hopes to get started soon before the famously brutal Michigan winter hits.

“Once we get on the ballot we are in pretty good shape,” Sorg said. “ We think this will pass overwhelmingly, but we have to get it to the ballot and that is the challenge.”

Gerrymandering is a tactic used across both party lines. To reiterate, the practice divides an election district to give a party the majority of votes. Often times the way these districts are drawn is an unfair representation of a community, Sorg said.

“Gerrymandering is a national issue that must be solved state by state,” Sorg said. “All political power is inherent in the people — wrong, it is that creepy lizard, the gerrymanderer.”

District boundaries are next set to be re-drawn after the 2020 census. 

The practice of gerrymandering began with Elbridge Gerry, a Massachusetts governor in 1810. Gerry figured out the power in re-arranging a voting district to achieve a desired election outcome. Elbridge would later become the fifth vice president of the U.S. in 1813 under President James Madison.

Sorg said the group is calling for redistricting reform to give the people’s vote more of a voice in elections.

“The goal is to have a legislature that represent our diverse society,” Sorg said. “What we have now is a legislature that looks like what the legislature wants it to look like.”

He provided the example of an area with agriculture interest. Based on the way the districts are drawn, those representing an agricultural voice might be split up enough to not have fair representation.

Sitting in the crowd Thursday night, Jon Hollister, of Niles, said he considered himself “politically stagnant,” until the last election cycle.

“Since the last election cycle I saw a lot of divisiveness among my friend groups that I had never seen before and I saw how it [politics] impacted my life, too,” Hollister said. “I saw it beneficial to get involved.”

He attended the meeting, he said, to see what “Voters Not Politicians” take on the issue of gerrymandering is.

Hollister said he was interested in the group’s cause, but that he wanted to first see what the actually proposed redistricting amendment to the Michigan Constitution would look like before he committed to anything.

The organization has begun collecting signatures for those interested in volunteering. For more information, or to sign up, visit votersnotpoliticians.com.