WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Welcome to the April edition of Civic Conversations – your monthly podcast collaboration between the League of Women Voters of Bloomington and Monroe County and WFHB.
In today’s episode, host Jim Allison speaks with Professor Ranjan Rohatgi who was a member of All IN for Democracy’s Citizens Redistricting Commission. Rohatgi is Assistant Professor in Mathematics and Computer Science at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana.
The conversation spans redistricting and representative democracy as a whole. It begins with host Jim Allison asking our guest about the redistricting of the U.S. Congress. Rohatgi explains how the process has transformed into a partisan remapping of congressional districts.
“In 33 states, the job of drawing district lines falls to exactly the people you wouldn’t want in charge of it – which is the state legislature itself,” says Rohatgi .
Furthermore, he touched on how this idea of gerrymandering – meaning the manipulation of boundaries to favor one party or class – impacts Indiana.
“In Indiana, the General Assembly – the state house and state senate – gets to draw the lines for their political allies or foes who represent Indiana,” he says.
Find out more from Professor Rohatgi in this month’s edition of Civic Conversations – a podcast collaboration between the League of Women Voters of Bloomington and Monroe County and WFHB.
