The Kokomo Common Council joined communities from across Indiana this week in urging the state’s Special Interim Study Committee on Redistricting to establish a citizens-led commission to oversee the process of redrawing district lines.
In effect, the council is suggesting the state, which will next redistrict in 2021, drastically adjust its current form of redistricting, which is done by the Indiana state Senate and House of Representatives.
The 12-member study committee is currently in the midst of an investigation into Indiana’s redistricting process. The committee is expected to present its findings by Dec. 1.
The council’s resolution suggested that a committee composed solely of Indiana voters should oversee the drawing of new lines for the Indiana General Assembly and U.S. Congressional Districts, which are currently done by the state’s elected officials.
The council is the latest in a number of municipal legislative bodies to pass such a resolution, joining cities like Anderson, Michigan City, South Bend, Lafayette, West Lafayette and Vincennes, according to an Associated Press report, which noted that redistricting is done every 10 years following the release of information by the U.S. Census Bureau.
As noted in the AP report, two public interest groups, Common Cause Indiana and the League of Women Voters of Indiana, which reached out specifically to Kokomo council members, have recommended that local units of government adopt resolutions in support of redistricting reform.
In the resolution, the council highlighted its belief that the current redistricting process creates “an appearance of a conflict of interest.” Therefore, a new process would empower communities, increase voter participation and inspire more communication between voters and elected officials, according to the resolution.
In addition to the citizens-led committee, council members incorporated a number of reform ideas.
Those ideas included a plan for making the redistricting process more transparent; not considering the addresses of any individual, including officeholders, when drawing a district; and prohibiting commission members from having off-the-record communication with anyone except staff and legal counsel.
The council also promoted the design of drawing boundaries based on compactness, political competition, contiguity requirements and more.
Council member Janie Young, who communicated with the League of Women Voters prior to the resolution’s passage, said she thinks the redistricting process has become overly partisan.
“We feel that it’s something that’s needed,” she said. “It can be in a committee that won’t be so partial…We feel that if it’s handled that way, we are proposing it won’t be so partisan. It depends on what party is in, and it would take it out of the party hands, whether that’s Republican or Democrat.”
In a column for the Tribune, Sandra Grant, the president of the League of Women Voters of the Howard County Area, explained her thoughts about redistricting.
“It is important for a diverse group of citizens, representative of Indiana voters, to be put in charge of a transparent redistricting process that seeks and facilitates citizen input,” she wrote. “This group should also be given some clear statutory guidelines to follow to help them determine where the lines should fall.”