Prairie State Wire

The Illinois Republican Senate Caucus is taking to YouTube to let voters know what’s at stake with this year’s map redistricting.

“The remapping process determines which district you live in and who represents you in Springfield and in Washington,” a narrator says in a video posted to YouTube. “Here in Illinois, legislators are responsible for redrawing legislative boundaries every 10 years after the census.”

Due to the delay of federal Census Bureau data largely caused by COVID-19, a bipartisan panel may redraw the maps this year.

While the task normally goes to the party in control, Republican lawmakers are hopeful delays in data being available will open the door to them having a greater say in the process. Bylaws dictate if a new map is not completed by a June 30 deadline, a bipartisan commission with four members from each party chosen by party leaders will supervise redistricting.

“In recent years, Illinois has been under fire for their redistricting process as it creates a system where the legislators in control draw the maps leading to lawmakers choosing their voters rather voters choosing their lawmakers,” the video explains. “This is often referred to as gerrymandering.”

A growing number of Republican lawmakers are insisting there’s a better way of doing things.  

“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.”