Indiana Senate, House approve redrawn election maps
Indiana’s redrawn state legislative and congressional district maps are headed to the governor’s desk following final votes in both chambers.
Indiana’s redrawn state legislative and congressional district maps are headed to the governor’s desk following final votes in both chambers.
Senate Democrats lost in their final attempt Thursday to make changes to the Republican-drawn Indiana election district maps in the GOP-controlled Legislature.
Republicans voted down a Democratic overhaul of Indiana’s congressional redistricting before moving ahead with their speedy approval of new election district maps that will be used for the next decade.
Critics on Monday assailed the proposed new Indiana congressional and legislative districts as rigged in favor of Republicans, alleging they dilute the influence of minority voters.
Senate Democrats are making one last effort to have an influence on Indiana’s Republican-controlled redistricting process by hosting their own additional public hearings around the state this week and next.
The Indiana House on Thursday voted 67-31, mostly along party lines, to approve the new state legislative and congressional election district maps, likely ensuring Republicans will keep their supermajority in the Legislature.
Indianapolis would gain a new state Senate district under a redistricting plan released Tuesday by Indiana Senate Republicans.
The Indiana House Elections Committee voted 9-4 along party lines Tuesday morning to advance the proposed congressional and House district election maps released last week by Republicans.
When voters in some states created new commissions to handle the politically thorny process of redistricting, the hope was that the bipartisan panelists could work together to draw new voting districts free of partisan gerrymandering. Instead, cooperation has proved elusive.
Stepping to the lectern in the Indiana House Chamber, Rev. Fatima Yakubu-Madus echoed the frustration of many who attended Thursday’s public hearing on redistricting when she emphatically asked state representatives, “What can we do, what can we say to change your mind?”
Some Indiana House Republican incumbents could go head-to-head with their GOP colleagues next election cycle based on shifts in the proposed redistricting maps.
Drafts of the state’s proposed new congressional and House district maps released Tuesday by Republicans aren’t likely to make a sizable change in Indiana’s political landscape.
A Republican redistricting plan shores up a suburban Indianapolis district for the GOP while leaving a potentially targeted Democratic district in northwestern Indiana intact.
Indiana House and Senate leaders set a tentative timeline Tuesday for the Legislature to approve the new state legislative district maps.
Hoosiers are being invited to try their skills at drawing legislative and congressional maps as part of the ongoing push by civic organizations in Indiana to have more public involvement in the redistricting process.
The fight over redrawing political maps is just ramping up in state legislatures and nonpartisan commissions around the country. But both Republicans and Democrats already are planning for major showdowns in the courts.
The once-a-decade battle over redistricting is set to be a showdown over the suburbs, as new census data released Thursday showed rapid growth around the some of the nation’s largest cities and shrinking population in many rural counties.
More than half of Indiana’s counties lost population during the last decade, according to U.S. Census figures released Thursday showing the state’s growth around Indianapolis and its other largest cities.
Lawmakers heard more than two hours of testimony Wednesday at the Indiana Statehouse from citizens who spent most of their time asking for a fair redistricting process.
Indiana lawmakers are set to take on a final hearing at the Statehouse on Wednesday following a weekend of mostly partisan input from hundreds who attended redistricting listening tours across the state.