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LEAGUE TO GOVERNORS: Protect Communities, Draw Equitable Mid-Cycle Maps

Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, and Dianna Wynn, president of the League of Women Voters, issued a press release to announce No Harm to Our Communities: Mapping Guidance for Elected Leaders, guidance on drawing mid-cycle maps that protect historically disenfranchised communities.

For the full press release, see https://www.lwv.org/newsroom/press-releases/league-governors-protect-communities-draw-equitable-mid-cycle-maps

LWVIN STATEMENT ON VP VANCE’S VISIT TO GOVERNOR BRAUN

Potential mid-term redistricting is an affront to all citizens of the United States, particularly in the context of the recent 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That historical legislation cemented into Federal law prohibitions on racial discrimination in voting and provided nationwide protections for voting rights.

Vice President J.D. Vance’s visit to Indiana on August 7, 2025, to make a personal redistricting appeal to Indiana Governor Mike Braun is political theater at best, and baseless and indefensible at worst. Such redistricting would focus on the 1st and 7th Congressional Districts, the only two with Democratic Representatives.

Indiana holds nine Congressional Districts, two held by Democratic Representatives, and seven held by Republicans. The State is already redistricted within an inch of its life, according to a Women4Change study written by a national expert on gerrymandering. In fact, the study concludes, “Indiana’s maps are unfair…they are more biased towards one party than 95% of all U.S. districting plans for which data is available enacted over the last 50 years.”

All IN for Democracy, a coalition created by LWVIN, Common Cause Indiana, and Count Us IN, among others interested in protecting voting rights in Indiana, created the Indiana Citizens’ Redistricting Commission (ICRC) to address the problems with drawing fair maps after the 2020 U.S. census. The Commission was composed of citizens throughout Indiana and was balanced across the political spectrum. They created maps in an open and transparent process.

The Indiana Legislature rejected all e1orts by the ICRC and instead held a small number of redistricting hearings throughout the State to get public input before maps were created to present to citizens at those hearings. LWVIN deplored the Legislature’s naked attempt, largely successful, to draw maps in a way for legislators to choose their own voters.

Two facts about Indiana and our voting culture here. 1.) The Hoosier state has historically low voter turnout, ranking in the bottom ten states approaching three decades, not a statistic of which we should be proud. 2.) Indiana leads in layering on unnecessary and convoluted voting laws, all under the guise of “election security”, when our elections have been proven time and again to be completely safe.

The Vice President’s visit to Indiana does nothing for the voters of Indiana. Indiana’s Legislature does nothing to address voter turnout in the State.

Instead of enacting perplexing and tangled voting laws that suppress the vote in this great Hoosier State, and instead of considering an interim and needless redistricting plan, our Legislature should adopt voter-centric practices for the benefit of all our citizens, while ensuring our elections continue to remain as safe as they have proven to be in the past.

Barb Tully, LWVIN VP

FORGOTTEN FOREMOTHERS

Profiles of lesser-known heroines in the fight for women's rights

Eugenie Kountze Nicholson

In a June 11, 1911, interview withThe Indianapolis Star, reporter Betty Blythe noted that Eugenie Kountze Nicholson “laughed” at the various arguments against women’s suffrage. Surely, opponents said, married women would just vote like their husbands. To this, Eugenie responded, “Few women think as do their husbands in private matters. Neither do two women of the same family ever hold the same political views, so that the man of the family could not possibly represent both his wife and daughter. And what about the thousands of self-dependent women who are not represented at all?”

But think of the children, opponents argued. Surely voting women would neglect their families. Eugenie replied, “The happiest women are those who have been blessed with homes and families—the rearing of a family is a woman’s highest destiny. But even with the most devoted attention, the care of a family does not consume every moment of a mother’s time. ... Besides, the sensible mother understands that she must be a companion of her children as well as attending to their physical needs. ... The home is better if the wife and mother does not confine her interests within its four walls.”

Eugenie’s quotes reveal a pragmatic argument crafted for the suffrage debate of her era. “The ideal condition is undoubtedly for women to remain in their homes,” she said, “but many women are compelled to earn their own living and the changed conditions make it necessary that they shall leave their homes to do so. Since, therefore, these women must needs go forth to labor with the men, it is manifestly unfair that they should be deprived of the right of a voice in governing the conditions under which they work.”

You can read this entire article HERE.

Kathryn S Gardiner