North Cook News

Illinois state Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb) once again pushed this week for independent map drawing and an end to the state's detrimental process of gerrymandering.

The congressional and state legislative district map-drawing process varies for each state, with most states, including Illinois, having left the responsibility to the state legislature despite an increasing movement for reform to combat the abuse of gerrymandering. This occurs when the majority party attempts to manipulate the boundaries of an electoral constituency for the purpose of winning elections.

"Our democracy is built upon the premise that voters choose their elected officials," Hammond said in a statement on her website. "But in Illinois, a partisan map-drawing process that allows majority-party lawmakers to draw their own maps and essentially choose their voters is used. This procedure protects incumbent legislators and solidifies majority-party control. The process . . . stifles democracy and undermines our representative form of government."

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago)

Similar concerns have been expressed by some North Cook County residents, such as Vicki Wilson, who has previously encouraged community members to sign petitions against gerrymandering. 

“I think it’s just a very basic fundamental reform that’s needed in Illinois,” Wilson said. “It's way past time that we have fair maps. The breakdown of voters in Illinois is not accurately reflected because of the map-making process. [Illinois House Speaker] Mike Madigan [D-Chicago] has controlled the map for however long and he puts the Republicans in as few districts as possible. It affects everything when we don’t have adequate representation and we don’t have people running for office because they know the map is drawn a certain way."

Hammond also encouraged citizens who are in support of more independent map drawing to sign the HJRCA 10 petition designed to transfer the power of map-drawing from state legislatures to independent commissions.

"We’ve had really great candidates run but they still lose because of the way the map is drawn," Wilson said. "If it was a fair map process, we would have much closer elections and more people who would run and our state wouldn’t have been driven into the ground the way it has under Democratic rule. People need to know how critically important this is. Anything we can do to give more power to the actual citizens of this state is what we need to do. It’s the most basic fundamental, extremely important critical reform. We need structural reform in this state, and this is one of them.”

Democratic Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and several state House representatives, were contacted but not available for comment.