Prairie State Wire

As the deadline for the state's new legislative redistricting approaches, Democrats and Republicans are sparring over whether the official U.S. Census data should be used to draw the new district lines. 

With a long history of gerrymandering in the Prairie State, some argue that only the official U.S. Census data would best serve rural and minority communities, while others say that the representation of those communities in the census data is incomplete because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In an April 21 report from WCIA News, Stanley Franklin from the St. Louis Chapter of the NAACP laughed when asked if he trusted politicians in Illinois not to gerrymander. 

"The thing about gerrymandering, sometimes they do it go gain power," Franklin responded to the WCIA reporter. "It's a situation where those that are in power tend to want to draw a district that's favorable to people that would elect them.

"That's not always fair for the community. They stack the decks to their advantage."

Critics note ACS data is less accurate and can be more easily manipulated to facilitate gerrymandering.

"Redistricting is very very important and somewhat tricky," Franklin said. 

Republicans are frustrated that the official U.S. Census data is being tossed to the side and that many Democrats are backpedaling in their support of fair maps. Many lawmakers have apparently changed course in their commitment to fair maps after getting elected into office. 

In a 2016 op-ed House Speaker Chris Welch said that the gerrymandering of minority populations in Illinois would be prevented by an independent remapping commission. He stated that an independent remapping commission would be a "win-win" and a solution to a process that “has often been criticized as too political and one where voters are left without a voice" according to a Chicago Tribune editorial.

If the statehouse can't finalize the maps by June 30, the process will be deferred to an independent commission. Critics feel that engagement in the redistricting hearings have been minimal at best and that only official U.S. Census data is appropriate for the redistricting. 

“I testified at the hearing and it’s the process itself,” former House candidate Marco Sukovic said in the Lake County Gazette earlier this month. “It’s not one that engaged the public in any meaningful, substantive manner. I asked the senate redistricting committee to give me two figures. The first how many people have participated in these hearings to date, keep in mind they are about halfway through with these hearings, and they told me only 46 people have. You’re thinking about a state of over 12 million people and only 46 people have participated.

"With reapportionment figures from the Census Bureau due in April, the DPI has pressed ahead with plans to meet the June 30 deadline without using data from the 2020 Census," Sukovic said. "It has argued that data from the American Community Survey and data provided by their redistricting software vendors is sufficient for purposes of redistricting. To provide cover for this overtly political power play, the Illinois Democratic House and Senate legislative caucuses are haphazardly throwing together redistricting subcommittee hearings across the state with the goal of providing a veneer of public input and participation in the process."