Letter: Columnist right about need for redistricting commission

To the editor:

Bravo to Morton Marcus for his column (Redistricting would bring better representation,” Feb. 23) about redistricting for the state of Indiana!

He has made it specific that the state needs an independent redistricting commission to help protect the voting public from wasting their votes in a rigged election.

“Rigged election” you ask? Isn’t that what Donald Trumps’ election team harped on for months? Has the election really been HACKED?

Yes, the election has been rigged but, not by computer hackers. It was rigged long before by the political parties in power in the state legislature who are given the power to redistrict the state every 10 years.

Marcus clearly states: “…our self-serving, one-party legislature has no interest in promoting democracy. Even those in the minority party have little concern for fair primaries and elections.”

How can they do this? Given the power to redistrict the state, the majority party can gerrymander districts. This is defined as: “the dividing of a state, county, etc., into election districts while concentrating the voting strength of the other party into as few as possible.

So, when we vote, our votes are already “rigged” because the concentration of registered voters in each district is already weighted toward the party in power at the time of the redistricting.

Milo Smith, chairman of the committee in the state legislature, did not allow the committee to vote to continue the HB 1014 into the Statehouse for consideration that the voting districts be drawn by an independent committee that would not weight the voting in the district toward one party.

Not allowing this progression keeps Indiana voters from being the determining factor for their representatives. Instead, the weighted voting system makes the vote rigged toward the majority registration and eliminates a fair, democratic election.

Tell your representative that you want an independent committee to redistrict the state before 2020.

Karen Vaughn

Franklin