ANDERSON — Two citizen groups are trying to change how Indiana draws up district lines for seats in the U.S. Congress and the Indiana General Assembly.
Common Cause Indiana and the League of Women Voters of Indiana are urging local units of government to pass a resolution to take the drawing of district maps out of the hands of lawmakers and change the process to a citizen panel.
Since 1812, gerrymandering, or drawing district lines to benefit one political party over another, has become a part of the American political vocabulary.
Legislative districts are redrawn every 10 years following the release of information by the U.S. Census Bureau. The next redistricting in Indiana will take place in 2021 to start with the 2022 election.
The Anderson City Council became the sixth municipal legislative body to pass the resolution, joining Michigan City, South Bend, Lafayette, West Lafayette and Vincennes.
California recently adopted a citizens group to redraw the district lines. The first district lines were completed in 2012.
Currently, 10 states, including Illinois and Ohio, are considering reforming how district maps are created.
If formed in Indiana, the citizen redistricting commission would only deal with state and federal legislative districts and not extend to city and county councils.
Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, said he supports looking at alternatives to the current system.
“I want to get all the facts from other states and see if there is a track record of success,” he said.
“I’m OK with looking at a citizen panel,” Lanane said. “I also want to look at the Iowa model.”
Since 1980, Iowa has the legislative services agency, which is non-partisan, draw the lines, he said.
“It seems to have worked well,” Lanane said. “It has not been challenged in court and the districts don’t divide counties.
“I’m open to a different way of redistricting,” he said. “There is a lot of distrust in the way we do it now.”
Lanane said selecting citizens to serve on a redistricting commission would be a challenge and said the California model is a grueling process.
Sen. Doug Eckerty, R-Yorktown, said he informed Common Cause that he has no problem studying a change in how redistricting would be accomplished.
“It’s not as easy as it sounds,” he said. “The biggest challenge would be selecting citizens.
“The overall effort is to make the process as unbiased as possible,” Eckerty said. “We all have biases.”
Julia Vaughn, policy director for Indiana Common Cause, said the intent of having municipal units of government pass a resolution is to show lawmakers that there is broad public support for a change.
“Citizens seem to feel that the district lines are drawn for political purposes,” she said. "The consensus is the need to have citizen input in the redistricting process.”
Vaughn admitted that changing the redistricting process is not a “sexy” issue that would attract the interest of the public.
“The process creates legislative gridlock and is taking away time from the issues the state needs to address,” she said. “Lawmakers are not doing the business of Indiana residents.”
During the Aug. 11 council meeting, Vaughn said the process has to be opened to any registered voter in Indiana that wants to serve on a redistricting commission.
“It will be more balanced and create better districts,” she said.
Vaughn said in 2014 that 44 of the 114 elections for seats in the Indiana General Assembly were uncontested.
“Indiana had the lowest voter turnout in the United States at 28 percent in 2014,” she said.
Vaughn said competitive districts would increase voter turnout in the future.