Common Cause has been fighting for voting rights, government ethics, election reform and fair redistricting for more than 50 years, and Susan Lerner has been executive director of Common Cause NY for nearly 15 years. 

She’s a friend of In Focus, informing our audience of changes in voting laws and myriad other political issues facing us. She joins In Focus this week to speak about something she feels especially passionate about: post-2020 Census redistricting. 

Lerner talks about the urgency of drawing lines fairly, so that all New Yorkers’ votes will count. She says it was clear the Independent Redistricting Commission, comprised of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, would not produce a result, and that’s why it is more important now that the state legislature supply a map that is fair to both parties, something, she says, the Republicans did not do when they held the majority. 

Lerner says, there is a solution, one that is used in several other states: to form citizen-led redistricting commissions, comprised of people who know their neighborhoods and their needs, and would be less likely to bow to political pressure. 

But she also stresses it is up to each and every New Yorker to understand just how important this is, to attend redistricting meetings and to make sure all of our voices are heard.