Illinois redistricting forum highlights potential reforms

CHICAGO - State Senator Kwame Raoul and Mary Schaafsma of the League of Women Voters of Illinois outlined reform proposals at a recent forum held in downtown Chicago.

The LWVIL has proposed a constitutional amendment, the Illinois Fair Map Act, that would create a redistricting commission to draw lines and give legislators the opportunity to approve them.

Raoul, chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee, contended that the legislature should continue to have the first opportunity to draw the map.

“I think there’s more ability to embrace the diversity of our great state if you have 177 voices involved in the process,” Raoul told Illinois Statehouse News. “The extent to which citizens’ initiatives have been used in other states kind of curtail the rights of minorities.”

Schaafsma said the Fair Map Amendment will actually make the partisan process of redistricting nonpartisan.

“In fact,” Schaafsma told Illinois Statehouse News, “[We] think that we have opened up an opportunity for drawing more minority districts under this proposal.”

Both proposals have a strong emphasis on transparency and citizen engagement in the redistricting process, which has in recent cycles taken place more behind closed doors.

At the forum, “Redrawing the Boundaries: An Illinois Redistricting Discussion,” fellow panelist and George Mason University professor Michael McDonald said he sees benefits in both proposals, but is concerned with the idea of two proposals.

“It is a chance for a stalemate and then nothing to get done,” said McDonald according to WBEZ. “And that’s a real possibility. If Democrats and Republicans both hold to their favored plans, and fight hard against each other’s, neither proposal could go before voters.”

Another possibility is both proposals could be approved, sending the issue to the courts.

For the League’s proposal to land on November’s ballot, they will need to collect approximately 280,000 signatures before May 2.

A chart is being circulated comparing the League’s proposal to Senate Democrats.

Audience at Illinois Redistricting Forum, sponsored by Brennan Center for Justice, George Mason University and Midwest Democracy Network with support from The Joyce Foundation

Justin Levitt of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU and Virginia Martiniez of MALDEF - the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund - discussed basic facets of the process in “Redistricting 101.” George Mason’s Dr. McDonald also presented findings from his “Illinois Mapping Project.” Meanwhile, Rob Paral of Rob Paral and Associates provided information about the state’s changing population and the potential impact on redistricting.

For more pictures and materials from the forum, visit the Midwest Redistricting website.

The Proposals
The Illinois Fair Map Amendment
Illinois Senate Democrats’

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