UPDATED: GOP Alleges Democrat-drawn Legislative Maps Violate Population Rules
A portion of the new Democrat-drawn Illinois House districts approved by the legislature in May.
Republicans allege census data shows Democrat-drawn legislative maps violate population deviation rules.
The Supreme Court has previously ruled a 10% deviation in population is allowed, but the GOP says census data shows close to a 30% deviation between the largest and smallest House districts.
“Just as we predicted, the maps that were drawn by Illinois Democrats in a closed room and without public input, and signed by Governor Pritzker, have proven to be unusable and unlawful given the release of the U.S. Census data,” said House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs). “It is now up to the Legislative Redistricting Commission to draw the fair maps our state so desperately needs.”
Legislative Republicans have not released their math other than two districts. One, they claim a district represented by Rep. Barbara Hernandez (D-Aurora) has 92,390 people and a district represented by Rep. Lamont Robinson (D-Chicago) has almost 125,000 people.
“Despite bipartisan pleas to wait for the Census number like 48 other states, Illinois Democratic politicians that were led by Governor Pritzker ignored the voting rights of their own constituents in an attempt to hold absolute power for another decade,” said Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods). “By breaking his promise and signing this map that has now been proven to be widely inaccurate, Governor Pritzker once again sided with political insiders against the people of Illinois.”
A longtime Republican attorney referred us to the Illinois Republican Party for comment. The lawyer representing House and Senate Democrats in the case has not responded to our request for comment. Our messages to spokespeople for Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Chris Welch also have yet to be returned.
UPDATE (1:09 P.M.):
Mike Kasper, the attorney for Democrat lawmakers, declined to comment on pending cases. A spokesperson for House Speaker Chris Welch said she wouldn’t be commenting while experts are “analyzing the data.”
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy called the maps “wildly unconstitutional amateur artwork.”
“Illinois Democrats forged ahead with a nakedly partisan and sham process of politicians drawing their own districts behind closed doors in the face of repeated pleas from good government reformers and community groups to wait until the official census numbers were released. Democrats refused. Now the courts have no option but to strike down this wildly unconstitutional amateur artwork presentation masquerading as a lawful legislative map. It’s time for the bi-partisan map-making process to take over.”
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UPDATE (2:17 P.M.):
Governor JB Pritzker generally sidestepped the question when asked about the potential issue this morning at the State Fair:
“Well, my number one concern about the maps is just to make sure that we’re recognizing the diversity of our state in the way that the mapping is done. To the extent that there are changes that will need to be made, that’s certainly something the legislature will need to take up and I’ll consider.”
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UPDATE (4:34 P.M.):
Statement from Sen. Omar Aquino (D-Chicago) Chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee, and Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) Vice Chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee:
“While we continue to analyze the information released by the U.S. Census Bureau, our commitment to the people of Illinois remains the same: we support a fair map that reflects the broad racial and geographic diversity of Illinois. As we go through this review process, if it becomes clear that updates need to be made, we will take the appropriate steps to do so. This has been a unique Census, and it’s important we take time to fully understand the data. This includes the impact of ‘differential privacy,’ which is which is used by the Census Bureau to protect identities of respondents but may also result in inaccuracies, especially in more ethnically and racially diverse communities.”
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