South Central Reporter

The redistricting process is underway in Illinois, and there are people who are unhappy with the way the process is unfolding.

Prior to his election as Governor, J.B. Pritzker campaigned on a promise that he would veto legislative maps that were created by politicians, partisans, or their staff members, and he is breaking that promise with the current process, some say.

Rep. Avery Bourne, (R-Pawnee), joined other redistricting committee members who spoke in front of a locked door, in a video uploaded to the Illinois House GOP YouTube account on May 6.

“Today I am standing in front of a locked door where politicians are literally walking in and selecting their voters. Our Democratic colleagues have called for a fair process, we keep hearing this over and over that they’re committed to a transparent process,” said Bourne. “The governor himself  has said that he wants a transparent process, and what we see today and what we heard reported last night is literally the opposite of a transparent process. They are going behind a closed, locked door to pick their voters.”

Redrawing legislative districts occurs once every decade after the U.S. Census releases its population data. However, the Census Bureau announced a delay in this year’s data, largely because of delays attributed to COVID-19. In Illinois, if the map isn’t drawn by legislators by June 30, a bipartisan commission of four members from each party (chosen by party leaders) is to supervise the redistricting process.

Democratic lawmakers though are proceeding with the redistricting process with population data from other sources.

And many Illinois residents, according to a March article in the Prairie State Wire, don’t want politicians involved in the redistricting process.

The article quotes from a video on the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus YouTube account, called Redistricting in Illinois.

“A number of states are shifting the task of map drawing to an independent commission,” the narrator says. “Here in Illinois, calls for an independent commission have received overwhelming public support and a recent poll shows that 75% of Illinoisans believe Illinois should do away with the current process. This is where power and corruption come into play because it’s not politically desirable for those drawing the maps to change the system when it’s that same system keeping them in power.”

News-Gazette columnist Jim Dey points out that Gov. Pritzker campaigned on the promise that he would veto any partisan-drawn legislative maps, but now seems to be backing off that pledge.

He quotes Pritzker in his column: “Well, as I said, I will veto an unfair map. I have also said that in order for us to have an independent commission, we needed to have a constitutional amendment, something that would actually change the way the process operates today in the (Illinois) Constitution. That did not happen. So now, as we reach the end of this session and I look to the Legislature for their proposal for a redistricting map, I’ll be looking to it for its fairness.” 

Leadership of the Illinois State Conference NAACP is also concerned.

In a redistricting committee public hearing in late April,  President Teresa Haley called the process manipulative and called for every voice to be heard.

"Every voice is important," Haley said in that public hearing.