Coalition Pushing To Change The Way Legislative Maps Are Drawn

Leaders of “good government” groups say Indiana can’t wait any longer to explore changing the way it redraws its legislative maps every 10 years.  The newly-formed Indiana Coalition for Independent Redistricting is pushing for the change.

Indiana’s voter turnout in the last election was the lowest in its history and the worst in the country.  Common Cause Indiana’s Julia Vaughn says that’s in part because voters don’t have enough choices, noting that 44 out of the 100 state Representatives ran unopposed.

“A lot of people are waking up that redistricting reform is something that we need to do here in Indiana to really revive our democracy, breathe some life back into it,” Vaughn said.

She says that’s why Common Cause and the League of Women Voters joined to form a coalition pushing lawmakers to take redistricting out of legislative hands as much as possible.  The General Assembly is constitutionally required to approve new legislative maps every decade.  But Vaughn says a system in which an independent commission does the bulk of the work could satisfy that requirement.

“This commission would simply be drawing the lines," Vaughn said. "Under any scenario, they’re handed to the legislature and they would vote them up or down.”

Groups including ACLU Indiana, the Hoosier Environmental Council, NAACP Indiana and the Indiana Farmers Union have joined the coalition.