But the League of Women Voters’ Day of Action rally — held Thursday culminating with a rally at the Warren County Courthouse — is designed to point to a time quite recently when the county was, they assert, gerrymandered.

With detailed Census data expected later this year, state House and Senate districts will be redrawn in what amounts to a vicious political battle.

“Current law gives the power to a commission established by the Legislature, with two leaders from each of the major parties and a fifth member who has been chosen by the courts in recent years,” Susan Stout with the Warren County League of Women Voters explained.

“After the 2000 census, those leaders drew district boundaries that divided Warren County into two Senate Districts. Senate District 25 looked like it had a tail with a curlicue, consisting of Mead Township, Clarendon Borough, and the City of Warren,” she said.

The Warren County League of Women Voters took to the courthouse Thursday to raise awareness for the upcoming redistricting fight in Pennsylvania.

“One look at the map shows that this was a gerrymandered district, with nothing like the compact and contiguous shape mandated by the law.”

Outside of those three municipalities, the rest of the county was assigned to the 21st district.

“That meant that the seat of county government, Warren, was detached from the rest of the county in terms of representation in Harrisburg,” Stout explained, “and it meant that anyone seeking to work with Harrisburg to address Warren County’s needs had to work with two different Senators.”

According to the League, for at least 95 years the county had been intact from a state Senate perspective.

“The shape of Congressional districts needs to be redrawn [after every census] because people move, and each district must contain an equal number of voters,” former county Congressman William Clinger said in a statement. “The Founding Fathers assigned the task to the State Legislators which really means members of the majority political party who redraw the Congressional districts to favor colleagues in their party.

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton “Fair districts” was the rallying cry at a League of Women Voters “Day of Action” held on Thursday.

“Over time this has resulted in a US House of Representatives with more conservative members if the Republicans redraw the districts and more liberal or progressive if the Democrats draw the districts lines. Result? Legislative paralysis with neither party willing to negotiate or compromise to pass legislation resulting in nationwide contempt of Congress. Better that reappointment be handled by non-partisan citizen commissions to insure fair fights instead of rigged elections.”

“The District lines drawn after the 2010 census were very controversial, but in the end, Warren County is still not intact,” Stout said. “Warren City, Mead Township and Clarendon Borough are reunited with most of the rest of the county, but Columbus, Eldred, Southwest and Spring Creek have been assigned to a district to the west of us.”

With Census data coming soon, the League is advocating a legislative solution to these challenges.

“The League of Women Voters of PA and of Warren County are supporting legislation, co-sponsored by State Senator Scott Hutchinson, that would mandate public input in the redrawing of districts, define a transparent process for that redistricting, and establish objective standards of fairness for redistricting,” Stout said. “That legislation, known as LACRA, the Legislative and Congressional Redistricting Act, has been introduced to the PA House as HB 22 and to the PA Senate as SB 222.”