ST. JOSEPH — The League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Counties will host a public forum on redistricting in the Norris Room at the St. Joseph Public Library at 2:30 p.m. on July 11. The featured speaker will be Margaret A. Leary, retired director of the University of Michigan Law Library.

Redistricting contains many complicated matters. At the July 11 forum, Ms. Leary will help clarify them so that when voters go to the polls in November, they will have a better understanding of the issues and can vote for or against a proposal that may determine how redistricting will take place after the 2020 census when congressional districts will be redrawn consistent with shifts in population reflected in census data.

The subject of redistricting and looms large this year for other important reasons. Some states likely will gain seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and other states will lose them. Even states that neither lose nor gain seats, however, will draw new lines so that their population is distributed among districts in roughly equal numbers. At least that is the stated goal.

The party that has control of a state’s legislature generally has control of the redistricting process. When it exercises that control to draw distorted districts with the goal of protecting or enhancing its own political position, redistricting becomes gerrymandering — a term that has significant political currency this year because cases raising the issue are pending in several courts throughout our country, including the U.S. Supreme Court and a Federal District Court in Michigan, and because Voters Not Politicians is working to put on the ballot in November a proposed amendment to the Michigan Constitution that would take control of redistricting away from the legislature.

The public is invited to attend this event for a glass of iced tea, a cookie or two, and — most importantly — an opportunity to gain understanding of the important issues of redistricting and gerrymandering.

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.