“I think Hoosiers value fair play.”
That’s what Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause Indiana, said Wednesday evening at Bloomington’s Green Drinks event, as she was talking about the issue of gerrymandering in Indiana.
Low voter turnout and a lack of interest in ballot issues — those are some of the problems created by gerrymandering, Vaughn said. Now is the time to let state legislators know they need to seek public input while determining lines for state House and Senate districts, because the next session of the Indiana General Assembly will be the last before the political lines are redrawn after the 2020 Census, she said.
Gerrymandering is basically establishing the lines of political districts to benefit one political party or candidate — and both Democrats and Republicans in Indiana have done that in the past, Vaughn told the audience.
“We give this job to the group that is absolutely the worst at this,” Vaughn said. “This allows politicians to choose their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians.”
Even so, there are actions Hoosiers can take to ensure the changes made by the General Assembly won’t favor one political party over another and will make representation of all Hoosiers more fair. The main components needed are determining who draws the districts and how that is done, and that should be done by citizens, not politicians, she said. The process also should be transparent, so everyone understands what and when it’s happening.
While that hasn’t occurred yet, Vaughn said there are positive signs, such as a state Senate bill this past year that would have formed a redistricting commission with included public comment as well as a legislative committee in determining political districts throughout the state. The bill didn’t make it out of the Senate.
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