Redistricting will be upon us soon. We voters, once again, will be herded between legislative boundaries that remind one of cowboys riding drunken horses lurching side to side to keep their balance just so the most powerful can keep the power they have given themselves.

This is the true way our votes are stolen: We are forced to cast our ballots where we have been directed; no need for midnight truckloads of fake votes or machines jimmied to erase the wishes of the electorate. Simple snakey lines going through townships, counties and sometimes even dividing a patriot’s homestead.

Lines are drawn by Democrats and Republicans only and are set forth behind closed committee doors, with no public input, answering to no electorate, utilizing as the only criteria whether the desired geography is red or blue.

Gerrymandering hobbles us in our present and robs our children’s future. Once candidates win elections, it is nearly impossible to get them out of office.

Before the Legislature are two bills, Senate Bill 222/House Bill 22, the Legislative And Congressional Redistricting Act (LACRA). When enacted (and we can get this done together), redistricting committee meetings will be made open to the public. Voters will have input, and modern methods of cartography will be employed to draw these, the most important lines in our commonwealth.

We need to contact our state legislators to convince them to sponsor and support LACRA, to take back our elections from the onerous rules of the 18th century. Inform them of what time it really is: time to take back the vote.

Richard D. French

Ford City

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