The Whiteside Forum will host Professor Paul Edleman from Sauk Valley Community College department of political science on Sunday April 30th, to present and discuss: “Democratic Values and the Political Process: Elections, Redistricting, and Gerrymandering.” This will be our last public event for the current 22-23 season and will take place in the Community Room of the Odell Public Library at 307 S. Madison St. Morrison IL starting at 2:00pm. All Forum events are free and open to anyone interested in our speaker or topic.
During our preseason topic discussion/selection process one of our members suggested: I think someone who could speak to redistricting would be interesting. First, Illinois lost a seat in the US House and our “new” district looks like a big C-clamp. Second, the State House divides Morrison over two districts (Polo as well). Fortunately, Morrison gets put back together for the State Senate but Polo does not. This has to be presented in a non-partisan way but some background information on how it happened and why they chose to divide really small towns would be interesting to hear.
This will be your opportunity to learn a bit more about our election process and maybe get your questions answered about redistricting, the electoral college, voting rules and regulations, and what might be done to improve faith in the system and promote our democratic values. Your questions and concerns are important.
The Whiteside Forum, established in 1985, is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit community group which sponsors presentations and discussions of issues of importance and interest to the public. Issues chosen for conferences have an international dimension as well as local interest and importance. The organization is supported entirely by individual, special and business contributions and all events are free and open to the public.
