Democrats set to accept new legislative cards despite criticism

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CHICAGO (AP) Illinois Democrats are set to approve new legislative limits on Tuesday despite objections from Republicans and some community groups that the process was needlessly rushed and maps drawn behind closed doors to keep Democrats in power in the state legislature.

Tuesday’s vote is a resumption of legislative cards the Democratic majority approved and Gov. JB Pritzker signed earlier this year. The maps sparked legal action from top Illinois Republicans and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a Latin American civil rights organization, which argued that the maps were flawed and unconstitutional because they were based on population estimates from the American Community Survey rather than the 2020 census.

With the release of census data this month, Democratic leaders said legislative maps would be adjusted and the legislature would return to Springfield for another vote. This could ensure Democrats continue to control the card-making process, rather than risk a judge throwing the cards away or allowing a bipartisan commission to resume work, a process that could end with Republicans having the last word.

The new maps, which House and Senate Democrats first released online Monday afternoon, will be used in state legislative elections over the next decade. Illinois Democrats have yet to vote on the new congressional district boundaries.

Representative Elizabeth Hernandez, a Democrat from Cicero who heads the House Redistricting Committee, said on Monday that the new limits better reflect the data we recently received from the US census and ensure that communities are represented by people they choose.

Republicans lambasted Democrats, saying the hastily called and poorly attended public hearings held over the past week were a sham because lines were already drawn in a secret Democrat-controlled process.

Witnesses who testified at those hearings urged Democrats to release proposed cards and give the public up to 30 days or more to weigh in before a vote is taken.

Ami Ghandi, senior attorney with the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, told members of the redistribution committees that it was unreasonable “to expect voters to provide information without maps to react to. The Rev. Robin Hood, representing black voters in Chicago, said people were disgusted at being left out of the process.

Jay Young, executive director of Common Cause Illinois, said the maps the Legislature will vote on Tuesday “will not be developed from public input, but from pure policy.

At every opportunity in this redistribution process, it’s as if lawmakers are doing all they can to ensure that the creation of these maps has as little public input as possible, ”Young said.

Lawmakers have historically used census data for redistribution, or the process of redrawing political maps every 10 years to reflect population changes and ensure, among other things, that districts are roughly equal in population. But with the release of 2020 census data delayed this year due to the pandemic, Democrats have chosen to use the American Community Survey to meet the June 30 deadline set in the state’s constitution.

If the legislature did not meet this deadline, an eight-member committee would be created with an equal number of Democratic and GOP lawmakers. If that group was unable to approve a card, a ninth member would be chosen at random to break the tie.

Republicans are hoping a federal judge will throw the Democrats’ cards away and order the process to begin.

Illinois’ constitution does not set a deadline for approving congressional district maps, so lawmakers have chosen to wait for census data before drawing these maps. Illinois loses a seat in Congress and Democrats are expected to eliminate a GOP-owned district.

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