NW Illinois News

Illinois lawmakers are at odds over the process of redrawing boundaries for the state's legislative and congressional districts.

Republican lawmakers, now in the minority, allege the current process is unfair and want to place an independent commission in charge of redistricting. Democratic leaders, however, claim Republicans only want to "rig the process" to ensure more significant political influence.

"Republicans have already been clear that their only goal is to rig the process to elect more right-wing candidates," Rep. Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero), House Redistricting Committee chair, said, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Legislative Republicans recently proposed the People's Independent Maps Act. The bill would prohibit lawmakers from serving on the advisory committee and require at least 10 public hearings to be held before a final map is approved.

"Over the past several weeks, we have listened and participated in redistricting hearings where we heard witnesses from who testified over and over again on the lack of transparency and communication in this redistricting process," Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) said in a Facebook post. "The People's Independent Maps Act, Senate Bill 1325, is about ensuring that our legislative maps are not drawn by politicians who benefit directly from unfair maps. An identical version of this legislation was introduced as a constitutional amendment just last year and garnered the support of 18 Senate Democrats and all Republicans. Given the bipartisan support this legislation had, it is our hope that we can move this legislation through and give the people of Illinois a truly fair map."

According to Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield), the legislation has support from both sides, WSILTV reported. The bill borrows language from a similar proposed constitutional amendment from 2019 that received support from both parties.

"Democrats want this; Republicans want this," Butler said. "The only people who are holding this up are a handful of people who want to draw the maps in the backrooms so that people don't see it."

In an attempt to garner bipartisan support for the bill, Butler has requested Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democratic leaders to call the proposal for an immediate vote.

The Republican's proposal would designate an independent commission to draw the maps. These maps would then be presented to an eight-person commission mandated by the state constitution.

The bill would also allow the Illinois Supreme Court to appoint 16 residents to a redistricting commission.