Prairie State Wire

Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition advocate Dr. Dilara Sayeed is urging Springfield lawmakers to make sure they accurately capture the life of her community as they seek to complete the once-in-a-decade task of map redistricting.

“This is a community that is often invisible,” Sayeed recently told a House Redistricting Committee during a recent hearing. “We are in the midst of this incredible time in Illinois and our history and in the work that we're doing. These are the things that are happening.”

Sayeed stressed she doesn’t want to see her community forced to needlessly miss out based on residents not being properly counted or accounted for.

“Next week we begin the month of Ramadan where Muslims will be fasting every single day again to reflect and one of the things I reflect on is the incredible diversity of Illinois,” she added. “This is all happening across Illinois and Illinois had the largest populations of every demographic I just mentioned across the nation.”

With the debate over how best to make the map drawing process a fairer and more accurate representation, Republican lawmakers are proposing a change to the entire system in the form of the People’s Independent Maps Act.

The measure would give the state Supreme Court the power to appoint 16 independent citizens to a redistricting commission within 30 days of passage. The members would be equally split politically.

Typically the job of map redrawing is left to the party in charge, but with Census Bureau officials having already indicated their data, which is heavily relied on in finalizing tabulations, won’t be available before a June 30 deadline, Republican lawmakers are hoping to have more of a voice in the process.