Prairie State Wire

Change Illinois Executive Director Madeline Doubek is blasting the state’s long-held practice of gerrymandering as “a form of voter suppression.”

Speaking during a recent League of Women Voters event, Doubek pressed lawmakers to come together in Springfield to draw state voting maps in a way that is reflective of the state’s makeup.

“We need to end gerrymandering together,” she said in a video posted to YouTube. “It is going to be a challenge. It has been a challenge for many years."

As lawmakers debate the best way to move forward in tackling the once-every-decade task, Doubek is hoping that things will be different this time around and that more voters will take a stand in pushing for what she sees as the right thing.

“Gerrymandering literally steals our voices and our choices,” she said. “Lawmakers have a huge conflict of interest in drawing on districts and picking their own voters and they do so to preserve their own careers. Whichever party tends to have power tends to take advantage and draw the districts where they can preserve power.”

A growing number of Republican lawmakers are now pushing proposed legislation known as the People's Independent Maps Act as the only solution. The measure would completely remove lawmakers from the job of redrawing maps and give the state Supreme Court the power to appoint 16 independent citizens to a redistricting commission within 30 days of passage.

Legislative redistricting occurs every 10 years, soon after the census population data is updated. As it is, the majority legislative party sets the new map.