Muncie may add third-party help for redistricting city council lines

It’s the city of Muncie’s turn to tackle redistricting, and the city council is looking for third-party input into whether redrawing the lines – or not – is the right move.  IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports.

In Delaware County overall, some voting precincts had to be redrawn after the 2020 US Census showed population loss.  But that isn’t a concern in Muncie, according to city council attorney Dan Gibson.  He says current district lines already meet the state statute – that they be contiguous, reasonably compact, not cross precinct lines without serious justification, and contain as much as possible an equal population.

Read More: Holcomb signs redistricting bill, officially ending legislative map-drawing process

Council members on the redistricting committee can leave the current districts as they are or redraw the lines themselves.  But on Wednesday night, they voted to consider third-party help.

For Republican at-large councilman Aaron Clark, it’s about appearances.

“I’m not comfortable with us as council people drawing or redrawing our own districts.  Some of us may be running for reelection in our districts, and I don’t think —  That just gives the feeling of gerrymandering, and I think that’s something we need to get away from.”

Others don’t want a computer modeling program to drastically change their districts and therefore lose neighborhoods where they’ve made meaningful relationships.

So, the committee agreed to look at prices.  But members also said if it’s too expensive to hire a consultant with council money, they’d rather the district lines be left as they have been for the last decade.  And according to the few public comments given at the meeting, it’s something Muncie is okay with.

The committee hopes to update the public on the price of a third-party redistricting consultant at Monday’s full city council meeting.