League of Women Voters Sponsors Talk on Redistricting in Indiana @ Meadowood Retirement Community, 2455 Tamarack Trail, Bloomington

The public is invited to a program about changing the process of drawing up voting districts in Indiana, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Bloomington-Monroe County. It will take place on Wednesday, February 22, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Terrace Room at Meadowood Retirement Community, 2455 Tamarack Trail, in Bloomington. League President Kate Cruikshank will discuss redistricting in Indiana and entertain questions.

Voters regularly go to the polls to choose their public officials. Every ten years, upon completion of the national census, in the process of redistricting, officials in many states choose their voters. Historically in Indiana and a number of other states, redistricting has been done by the party that controls the state legislature. Often district lines are drawn so as to favor that party, either by placing voters of the opposing party into awkward districts in order to minimize the number of seats the opposition can win, or by dividing population centers dominated by the opposing party into multiple sections that are then joined to districts where the majority party prevails. This kind of redistricting distorts a process that was meant to produce relatively equal voting districts into a tool that can undercut democracy, as it seldom produces fairly-drawn, sensible districts with logical boundaries.

Partisan redistricting, also called “gerrymandering” after a salamander-shaped district drawn to favor Elbridge Gerry in the early days of the nation, often results in non-competitive races and consequently in low voter turnout. In gerrymandered districts there can be a lack of shared concerns among representatives and their constituents. Gerrymandering represents a powerful method of maintaining incumbency and political control, conducive to cronyism and corruption.

In 2016, a Special Interim Commission on Redistricting established by the Indiana State Legislature and led by Representative Jerry Torr was charged with proposing a method of redistricting that would involve citizen input. In the current legislative session, the Commission’s proposal was presented to the House by Representative Torr and Speaker Bosma as HB1014. In the Senate, Mike Delph put forward a somewhat similar bill, SB136. Both bills would allow legislators to appoint a majority of Redistricting Commission members, but many who have been following these proposals hope that an amendment might produce a bill that puts citizens in charge of an independent process. To follow HB1014 and to learn the names of legislators on the Senate Elections and Apportionment Committee and their contact information go to https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2017/committees/elections_and_apportionment_0500.