McHenry Times

State Sen. Don DeWitte (R-St. Charles) can’t see how Democrats can draw redistricting maps fairly by a June 30 deadline.

“What data do you intend to use to draw the congressional and county maps?” DeWitte quizzed lawmakers during a recent Chicago South Committee Senate Redistricting hearing. “Do you believe that will be the most informative data to create a map with zero deviation?” he added.

One by one, witnesses lined up to testify about the importance of community input before redistricting is completed. To do this, DeWitte argued that lawmakers need to push back their June deadline by several months since the most complete and accurate Census Bureau data won’t be available before then.

“A number of these groups today are asking for a commitment that regional public hearings be held after a map gets drafted and before the legislature votes on a map,” he said. “We keep asking that question and we haven't gotten an answer but I don't think it's a complicated question.”

In recent months, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and policy watchdogs gathered to express the need for fair district mapping going forward.

State Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorne Woods) argued the only way to end all the rampant corruption in Springfield is by outlawing gerrymandering.

CHANGE Illinois Executive Director Madeline Dubeck said both a Senate and House joint resolution constitutional amendment that was being proposed needed to pass so that an independent commission could be formed to supervise the creation of fair maps.

"No one group can control the map-making process," Dubeck told the Prairie State Wire. "The overwhelming majority of people support fair maps."