Day 3: What My Voting Districts Look Like

When I went in to vote on Tuesday, my State and Local ballots were mostly familiar to me, but I had not done my due diligence for the State House Representative for my district. I had never hear his name. He was running unopposed. I did not cast a vote.

I went to work, then went home, but in the middle of the day I began thinking about why I hadn't seen the name of the person on the ballot. Where in the district did he hail? I located the district maps for both the State House and State Senate on the Indiana Government site. I was aghast at the district drawing for my Senate district. It was the strangest shape I'd ever seen. I'm in that odd pyramid shape at the top, center of the state. The largest city in the southeast corner of that block is Huntington, Indiana. The uppermost goes to the fringes of the City of Elkhart. The block spans sections of four counties. FOUR. The House District map is much more straightforward but still has its oddities in boundaries.

Indiana State Senate Minority Leader, Timothy Lelane (Democrat) is seeking to simplify the district boundaries through his committee work. I applaud this effort which the linked article extols as a bipartisan collaboration. While I don't believe that this will ensure the state becomes more likely to turn blue during elections, it will still go a long way to helping people understand who their candidates are. By having some modicum of regularity to the boundaries, it's likely more people who are 'like' their fellow district voters will be able to see their commonalities and talk more about issues that matter.

I engaged in fleeting thoughts of seeing what it would mean to run for this State Senate seat, and largely have dismissed the idea. I am not convinced that I could do the work and have the same lifestyle I have now related to family and work. Change would be inevitable. I look forward to sharing with my new State Senator and continuing State House Representative my views, which likely will vary from theirs.