Members of the public should take advantage of a series of public meetings aimed at gaining feedback on the state’s once-a-decade redistricting process.
Lawmakers are required to revise districts for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Indiana House and Senate once a decade to account for population changes uncovered by each new census.
Legislators are scheduled to return to the Statehouse in mid- to late September to redraw the district lines, but before that process begins, public meetings will be held in each of the state’s nine congressional districts. Meetings in Elkhart, Fort Wayne, Lafayette and Valparaiso will be led by Osceola Republican Tim Wesco, chair of the House Committee on Elections and Apportionment. “We look forward to hosting these important meetings across the state to hear directly from the public on Indiana’s redistricting process,” Wesco said in a news release. “Hoosiers can be confident that we’ll continue to meet all of our statutory and constitutional requirements.”
Those in Anderson, Columbus, Evansville and Sellersburg will be led by Terre Haute Republican Jon Ford, chair of the Senate Committee on Elections.
“Public input on redistricting is extremely important to the map-drawing process,” Ford said in that same news release. “We look forward to hearing from Hoosiers from all over Indiana during these meetings.”
Both Ford and Wesco will attend a ninth meeting, planned for the Statehouse in Indianapolis on Aug. 11.
The process normally would have been completed during the regular legislative session in the spring, but census data was delayed this year because of the pandemic.
Legislators expect that data to arrive by Aug. 16, and Wesco and Ford say an online portal will be launched in late August to allow members of the general public a chance to draw and submit their own maps for consideration.
Too often in years past, the new maps have been assembled almost entirely behind closed doors, springing into public view almost at the same moment they went up for a vote.
With luck, the process this time around will be different. The public meetings and the online portal are important steps in that direction.
It’ll make a difference, though, only if average citizens actually pay attention to what’s happening.
Tune in for at least one of these meetings, and if you get really ambitious, try your hand at drawing your own maps.
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