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 Illinois Democrats voted Aug. 31 to enact legislative maps that
guarantee their majority in the state’s 177 legislative districts.
The General Assembly called an emergency session on Aug. 31 to redraw the
legislative maps they passed this June. The previous maps were passed to avoid
handing the redistricting process over to a bipartisan commission, but used
American Community Survey, or ACS, five-year estimates along with other sources,
rather than the usual U.S. Census numbers.
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the 2020 Census results, which provides officials
the data they need to be able to draw up legislative maps. The Census results
did not arrive until mid-August, but the Illinois Constitution establishes a
deadline for the General Assembly to pass a plan by June 30 or the
responsibility is delegated to a bipartisan commission made of four Democrats
and four Republicans.
The ACS data the General Assembly used undercounted the Illinois population by
almost 42,000 people, leaving reform groups worried that a significant chunk of
Illinoisans were not represented in the legislative maps.
Republicans filed a lawsuit, saying that without using census data, the map was
unconstitutional and therefore not “effective” as required by the Illinois
Constitution and should be sent to the bipartisan backup commission. The Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) also filed a lawsuit to toss
out the plans for not using official census data.
Once the accurate census data was available, it became clear that the earlier
passed maps would not meet the population requirements set down by the U.S.
Supreme Court, and the original maps would be thrown out in court. Districts
generally need to be equal in population within a 10% deviation.
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The General Assembly held multiple hearings to
redraw the map before the new maps were passed, but minority
advocacy groups have called the process a sham, and Change Illinois
Executive Director Madeline Doubek said that the new maps are worse
than the ones rushed through originally, according to reporting by
WJOL.
The good government group Common Cause Illinois
eventually boycotted the hearings, releasing a statement that, “[a]t
each opportunity in this redistricting process, it’s as if lawmakers
went out of their way to ensure the creation of these maps had as
little public input as possible. Rejecting an independent bipartisan
redistricting commission, politicians chose to draw maps themselves.
They did so behind closed doors, with a series of hearings
attempting to add a veneer of public access. Yet, these hearings
were consistently hastily scheduled, poorly noticed to the general
public, and sparsely attended. As a result, the maps… will not be
crafted of public input, but of pure politics.”
According to reporting from NPR Illinois, Valerie Leonard, the
co-founder of North Lawndale Alliance and witness at redistricting
hearings, said of the maps that, “Someone had a very, very
deliberate way of drawing this … You didn’t care about our voting
rights. And this dilutes Black voting power to the hilt.”
Much of the controversy that the redistricting process has drawn
from these groups could have been avoided had the Illinois
Constitution been amended to take redistricting out of the hands of
lawmakers and put in the hands of an independent redistricting
commission. Fifteen states have already established such commissions
for legislative redistricting, some with positive results.
Illinois needs to do the same if it is ever going to avoid the
partisan gerrymandering that has been the hallmark of past
redistricting cycles and the justified anger of constituents who
feel unrepresented in state government. |
