Letter to the Editor: Make Sure Your Vote Counts!
Published March 14, 2021 in the Evansville Courier
Residents of Indiana Congressional District 8, which includes southwestern and south central Indiana, have a chance to provide input regarding what nonpartisan redistricting criteria should guide Indiana’s map drawing process this year – following release of the 2020 census data. The maps are for congressional (US) Representatives, Indiana state Senators and Indiana state Representatives.
Meetings are being conducted virtually by the Indiana Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC), a project by All In 4 Democracy (a coalition of non-profits) to show how redistricting should work. Voters are invited to share their preferences for what nonpartisan redistricting criteria should guide Indiana’s map-drawing process, identify important communities of interest and how they should be grouped together, or kept separate, when the new congressional and legislative maps are drawn. The maps are drawn by the party in power in the General Assembly.
The meeting for District 8 is Thursday March 18th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm CST. Public testimony will be compiled in a report that will be given to the General Assembly before they begin drawing districts later this year.
Working together we can ensure fair map redistricting, transparency, and accountability with voters choosing their elected representatives rather than the representatives choosing their voters.
Margaret Connolly, Vice President, League of Women Voters Southwestern Indiana