Op-Ed: Indiana’s Voter Suppression Playbook — and How We Beat It – By Dr. Tim Peck

This OP-Ed was shared with the Bloomingtonian

August 12, 2025

By Dr. Tim Peck

Last week, Vice President JD Vance sat down with Governor Braun to push a special legislative session that would allow the Republican supermajority in Indianapolis to re-draw Indiana’s congressional maps early—only five years after the last redistricting—purely to cement partisan power.

The Republicans are apparently unsatisfied with their supermajority control of the Statehouse, the Governor’s Mansion, both Senate seats, and seven of the nine Congressional seats. In an anti-democratic power-grab, they’re now coming for those last two seats, meaning that Indiana’s entire delegation in Washington would consist of Republicans, resulting in zero representation of moderate or independent or progressive voices and values.

In Bloomington, the redistricting could mean slicing the city in half, splitting the voters and their voices, silencing the community. 

In Texas, Democrats are fighting mid-decade gerrymandering by fleeing the state to deny a quorum. In New York and California, leaders are preparing to counter with aggressive redraws of their own. And here in Indiana? The Republican supermajority in the Statehouse means that Democrats can’t block a vote by walking out; if the vote is called, our maps are redrawn.

Redistricting is only one weapon in Indiana’s voter suppression kit. There are no early voting locations on the IU Bloomington campus, forcing students to travel off campus to vote early. State House and Senate maps are drawn to pack and crack voters, making real competition almost impossible. Indiana state law blocks cities from raising the minimum wage, passing landlord restrictions, or making other pro-worker reforms—disenfranchising local voters of their power to change their own communities. And when Erin Houchin was in the State Senate, she authored one of the most aggressive voter suppression bills in the country, adding unnecessary obstacles to absentee voting.

Indiana ranked 50th in voter turnout in the 2022 midterm election. The Republican supermajority strategy is working: suppress the vote, silence those who demand change, and keep power in the same hands.

But here’s the truth: if progressives, moderates, and independent-minded voters show up to vote, we can win. We did it in 2008 with Barack Obama, and we can do it again. 

We also must enact federal legislation that prevents  mid-decade gerrymandering for good. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has written a bill that would prohibit redistricting in non-census years, ending one of the most cynical tricks in modern politics. All it takes is lawmakers with the spine to vote for it. 

Call Governor Braun at (317) 232-4567. Tell him you oppose a special session for redistricting. Tell him you oppose partisan gerrymandering. Tell him: Not here.

Call your state senator and state representative. Tell them the same thing. 

And then vote like your life depends on it. Don’t let them make you think your vote doesn’t matter. Show up. Bring a friend. Bring 10 friends. Make it impossible for their desperate attempts at voter suppression to work.

Dr. Tim Peck is an emergency physician and healthcare entrepreneur running for Congress in Indiana’s 9th District. He lives on a small farm in New Washington with his wife and young son.

To learn more or get involved, visit timpeckforcongress.com

The post Op-Ed: Indiana’s Voter Suppression Playbook — and How We Beat It – By Dr. Tim Peck first appeared on The Bloomingtonian.