HAMILTON COUNTY — Hoosiers are continuing to speak out against the possibility of redistricting here in the Hoosier state.
WRTV’s Amber Grigley was at the Hamilton East Public Library, as residents tapped into their creativity in their plea to lawmakers about possible redistricting.
"This one is to the Senate President, and it says, 'Please oppose mid-cycle redistricting. Please stand firm for us. I'm sure you will be getting a lot of pressure, but we believe in you warmly, Jordan Upchurch, District 5,'" constituent Jordan Upchurch said.
Handwritten letters. Handmade signs. Constituents making their voices heard.
"Democracy, yes, autocracy, no," Scott Jones said. "Democracy is what we've called it for a really long time. Autocracy is never how we behaved. But it feels like we're behaving that way now."
Thursday evening, folks split up into two groups: writing letters to lawmakers and making signs for another rally at the statehouse.
"It is very unusual these days for lawmakers to get an actual handwritten letter. I mean, they get emails, they get phone calls, but a good old-fashioned letter is something that's really rare. So, we hope that this will help make an impression," Julia Vaughn, Executive Director of Common Cause Indiana, said.
For the past two months, Vaughn said they have generated more than 10,000 petition signatures, sending emails and making phone calls, expressing their opposition to possible mid-decade redistricting.
"If you haven't made your voice heard, now is the time. Republicans in the Indiana Senate met today to talk about redistricting. Republicans in the Indiana House met on Tuesday. So, there are very active conversations going on at the Indiana State House," Vaughn said.
A sense of urgency, understood by many.
"If we can keep Indiana from just doing a little bit of that, it would be helpful to the whole, the whole nation," Dan Svrchek said.
"I guess I've never heard anyone answer, 'Why are we doing this?' What, why, you know, if I were to ask a state representative, for example, I'd be interested to hear a cogent answer as to why other than, 'let's cheat,'" Jones said.
"I'm just so over all of these narratives and everyone fighting and the people that are supposed to be leading us, you know, blaming each other, and I feel like so many people, us Hoosiers, and the entire nation, just feel like no one's actually listening to us," Upchurch said.
"Taken us down a really dangerous path here in Indiana. We already have the next-to-lowest voter turnout in the entire country. So, if you send this message to people who literally don't care what you think, we don't care how you vote, we're going to manipulate the map so that your voice can't be heard in elections. People are really upset and angry," Vaughn said.
This Saturday, there will be a "No Kings" rally outside the statehouse from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Organizers are asking people to come early due to the large crowd size.
