Voters Oppose Gerrymandering

By Lars Mapstead

Hoosiers can find their voice with proportional representation

Indiana Republican leaders said it out loud: They are rigging the outcome as they redraw U.S. House districts.

The Indiana House opened hearings Monday, Dec. 1, launching the redistricting session that 69 percent of Indiana voters don’t want. The state Senate – whose members are reluctant – will meet Dec. 8.

Gov. Mike Braun ordered the emergency Statehouse session to scrap districts passed four years ago, kowtowing to bully tactics by President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. The scheme aims to preserve the GOP’s vulnerable House majority.

Gerrymandered maps could reconfigure Indiana’s House delegation of seven Republicans and two Democrats into one that is 8-1 or 9-0. The proposed map splits Indianapolis voters in the district of Rep. Andre Carson, Indiana’s only black Congressman, among four districts.

If this passes, expect expensive legal challenges. 

Trump won’t pay that legal bill. Nor will Vance or Braun.

Hoosier taxpayers will.

Republican gerrymandering began this summer, when Texas Republicans reopened House districts. A court has blocked implementation, citing undue impact on black voters. Missouri lawmakers drew new maps, only to face a likely referendum. A court is holding up Utah’s new districts.

In my state of California, Democrats used Proposition 50 to redraw districts. 

Did Democrats rig our House districts? Absolutely. We had 43 Democrat seats to 9 Republican, and now 5 GOP seats are vulnerable.

Yet, unlike Trump, national Democrats didn’t threaten California leaders. Voters passed Prop 50 2-to-1. It’s more apt to hold.

Indiana could end voter disgust by switching to proportional representation.In primaries, voters would choose their political party’s ballot. Candidates would be ranked by the votes they receive. By the general election, voters would pick a political party’s slate of candidates: Republican, Democrat, and any other political party or independent candidate. 

Instead of voting for one representative assigned to a House district, voters could select all nine of Indiana’s seats. 

If 65 percent statewide chose Republican, that would translate to six seats; 30 percent Democrat would yield three seats, and the remaining 5 percent for Libertarian and independent would yield none. If the percents were 50, 35, and 15, Indiana would send five Republicans, three Democrats, and one Libertarian or independent to the House. The same would work for the Statehouse.

Proportional representation would tamp down voter fury by offering true representation.

Or Indiana’s GOP leaders could dig their own graves by supporting preposterous districts.