Redistricting & Gerrymandering in Indiana

Redistricting is the process of redrawing district maps after the census to equalize the populations of congressional and legislative districts. Gerrymandering is the act of rigging the districts to sway the outcome of the election toward the party in power. 

We believe that voters should choose their elected officials. However, in Indiana state politicians choose their voters because they are in control of redrawing Indiana's districts every 10 years. Citizens Action Coalition is a part of the Indiana Coalition for Independent Redistricting, All IN for Democracy, a large group of organizations that has been working together for the last several years to put a fair redistricting process in place for Indiana.

The Indiana Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC)

Since the Indiana General Assembly (IGA) has refused to create a Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw fair and impartial district maps, we did it ourselves! The Indiana Coalition for Independent Redistricting formed our own citizens redistricting commission, composed of nine members:  three Republicans, three Democrats and three members who are neither Republican nor Democrat, with a chairperson who was not affiliated with either of the major political parties.

This commission demonstrated how the redistricting process in Indiana should be conducted, showing that a politically balanced group of citizens working transparently and in cooperation with citizens across the state can devise districts that serve the public interest, not the interests of politicians. 

The Indiana Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC) held a meeting in each of Indiana's 9 Congressional Districts, taking testimony from the public regarding what redistricting criteria should guide the map-drawing process and identifying communities of interest throughout the state. You can find video of the meetings here. Public comments from these meetings were included in a report to the Indiana General Assembly and set the parameters for a public mapping competition seeking community-focused districts.  Click here to read the final report from the meetings.

The report and the resulting maps were also submitted to the IGA by the All IN for Democracy coalition whose members lobbied the legislature to adopt them, instead of the partisan-drawn maps that were produced by the incumbent politicians.  Unfortunately, our state legislators declined those maps, voting instead to pass the maps drawn by politicians who want to preserve their power.

While redistricting didn’t turn out as we hoped, the organizing and education work we’ve done over the past several years motivated thousands of Hoosiers to get involved and drew a lot of attention to the need for reform. So much so, that the Indiana General Assembly held a series of town-hall hearings about the district maps during August and September.

• You can see the video archives of the House hearings here - just click the drop down and select a date. 8/6 = Lafayette & Valparaiso, 8/7 = Ft. Wayne & Elkhart, 8/11 = Indianapolis, 9/15, 9/16, & 9/20 = committee hearings at the Statehouse.
• You can see the video archives of the Senate hearings here - just click the drop down and select a date. 8/6 = Anderson & Columbus, 8/7 = Evansville & Sellersburg, 9/27 & 9/28 = committee hearings at the Statehouse.

For more on why redistricting reform is necessary, and what that reform should look like in Indiana, visit https://www.citact.org/redistricting-background