The League of Women Voters of LaPorte County announced it is hosting a free online public Town Hall meeting Saturday, March 20th at 10 AM CDT to discuss the upcoming congressional and legislative redistricting process.
During the Town Hall session, panelists will discuss the history of redistricting and explain the impact of drawing boundaries to favor one political party (known as gerrymandering) and what other states have done to ensure a fair process.
Every ten years, with the release of new Census data, new legislative districts are mapped out to represent the revised population numbers. As the population increases, so may the number of statewide districts, and the number of elected officials representing Hoosiers in Congress and in the Indiana State Legislature. The process of drawing the district boundaries is called “redistricting”.
Due to the COVID pandemic, the release of the new Census data has been delayed until September. At that time our state representatives will begin redrawing the voting districts.
In 2014, the League of Women Voters of Indiana and Common Cause Indiana co-founded the Indiana Coalition for Independent Redistricting. The coalition has twenty-five organizations working and advocating for a fair and bipartisan redistricting process that ends political party conflict of interest. The mission of the coalition is to “spread the word” about how important redistricting is and provide opportunities for Hoosiers across the state to be fully engaged in the process. It advocates for a fair remapping process – not “gerrymandered maps” that can result in an elected official’s base extending across multiple counties and skirting around specific areas of population to lock in political power.
To attend the online Town Hall via Zoom, find the info on the WIMS Facebook.