Indiana Public Media: Lawsuit challenges local government for failure to redistrict before deadline

Indiana Public Media: Lawsuit challenges local government for failure to redistrict before deadline

Julia Vaughn is the executive director of Common Cause Indiana — a lobbying organization focused on voting rights and election issues. She said the current map does not properly or equitably represent residents within its districts. “People in the overpopulated district have less voting strength in city elections than the people in the underpopulated districts,” Vaughn said. “So what our lawsuit seeks to do is simply ensure that all voters in Anderson have the same say in their local elections.” Vaughn said this upholds the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. She explained that making Anderson more equitable for voters would mean one person to one vote, and not bearing the weight of overpopulated or underpopulated districts. The deadline for redistricting under state law was Dec. 31, 2022. Vaughn said there is very little oversight of the redistricting process, which means it’s often up to outside organizations to hold the government accountable in redistricting situations. “So, unfortunately, outside of litigation, no, there’s very little oversight of this and it’s really easy for local governments to get away with just punting on this fundamental responsibility that they have to their voters,” Vaughn said.