Numerous Groups Representing Minority Interests Ask Democrats to Delay Redistricting
House Redistricting Committee Chair Rep. Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero) repeatedly brushed off Republican requests for more information about data used to draw a new redistricting plan.
In the first hearing since releasing a draft legislative redistricting proposal Friday night, groups representing Latinos, Asians, African Americans and others called on Democrats to stop the redistricting process and wait for formal census data.
The House and Senate draw new legislative districts every ten years after the federal census, but federal census data is delayed until August or September. Democrats argue they have a June 30th constitutional deadline to pass a redistricting plan and are using other sources of data to draw the maps.
Republicans continually pressed House Redistricting Chair Rep. Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero) and Senate Redistricting Chair Sen. Omar Aquino (D-Chicago) about what sources of data were used to draw the map. Democrats have said they used American Community Survey data, but would not divulge any other sources.
“After these hearings are concluded and any resulting changes to the proposal are finalized, we plan to provide further information about the population, demographics, and communities that comprise the final districts in the form of a descriptive resolution,” House Redistricting Committee Chair Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero) read in a statement at the beginning hearing.
“The response is wholly inadequate,” said Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington), the top Senate Republican on the redistricting panel.
A Senate spokesman contracted for the redistricting process also denied a request from The Illinoize for more information about all data used to draw the maps.
But groups from around the state, many of which cater to or lean to liberal interests, continually called for Democrats to wait for census data before drawing a final map.
“Illinois residents are savvy enough to understand that it’s really all about control,” said Jay Young, Executive Director of Common Cause Illinois, a group that works for expanded access to voting. “This [June 30th deadline] is being used to force bad decisions about the underlying data that was used to produce these maps.”
Multiple groups representing Latino voters, the second largest bloc of voters in the state under the new census, say the legislature should wait to draw the maps.
“It is never appropriate to use American Community Survey or other alternative data as the primary basis for redistricting,” said Griselda Vega Samuel, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF). “We urge you, once again, to base redistricting off of the decennial census data.”
Other groups, including one representing Orthodox Jews in the northern suburbs and Asian Americans on the southwest side of Chicago, say their communities are being drawn into multiple districts, diminishing their power as a voting bloc.
No testimony addressed Supreme Court district maps which were released earlier in the day Tuesday. Though, Hernandez said more time would be made for the courts plan before it is passed by the legislature.
The redistricting committees are scheduled to take testimony again this afternoon in Springfield.