North Cook News

CHANGE Illinois policy director Ryan Tolley said at a hearing that the process behind the newly drawn redistricting maps is keeping public input at a minimum.

“When the maps were revisited, it created additional confusion and alienated community voices from the process to a greater degree,” Tolley said during an Oct. 7 House Redistricting Committee hearing on the issue. “People had even less time the second go-around to participate than were provided in the spring and I just think that each time we keep coming back here for another remap we should be improving our process for engaging communities and learning from the previous process and making it more accessible.”

Tolley hinted that accessibility was the last thing Democrats were concerned about after being forced to redraw the maps they originally passed in August.

CHANGE Illinois has pushed lawmakers to take steps to make sure data from the 2020 U.S. Census was used for redistricting as opposed to American Community Survey (ACS) data.

“One of the things I think we saw from the spring was that advocates warned against the negative consequences of the use of ACS estimates as replacement for 2020 census data,” he said. “Our second recommendation is that this committee pay particular attention to the federal Voting Rights Act and create a congressional map that honors and prioritizes that law.”

Tolley said CHANGE Illinois pushed for maps that took into consideration the voices of the people they’re supposed to represent.

“Prioritize listening to community members and afford them a better opportunity to participate, particularly after a map proposal is released,” he said. “Even advocacy organizations that track remapping had trouble providing meaningful feedback on the district lines when the legislative maps were released and voted on. There is zero ability for everyday community members to have a say in their congressional maps if votes are rushed again after a map is released in the coming weeks.”

Tolley isn’t the only one electing to use the forum to take Democrats to task over their actions.

“This morning’s House Redistricting Committee hearing was an abuse of a free and fair democratic process,” House Redistricting Committee spokesperson state Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) said in a statement. “Despite hearing testimony from countless advocacy groups asking for more time, the House Democrats, who had no members in attendance, held a hearing with little notice that resulted in no public attendance in person or even on Zoom. This continued approach from the Illinois Democrats to jam through yet another partisan map to retain control over the state is disgusting and offensive to all the residents of our state.”

State Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) sought to remind voters they’ve seen it all before.

“It's not deja vu you're having, Gov. Pritzker did sign politician-drawn legislative maps on a Friday afternoon,” he posted on Facebook. “He has now broken his promise to the people of Illinois twice.”