Late census data and political partisanship mar Illinois House and Senate remapping

Democratic majorities in the Illinois General Assembly pushed through new maps for both Illinois House and Senate districts May 28. Republicans asked Gov. J.B. Pritzker to veto them, but he signed them into law June 4.

“Virtually no one in this state, other than the Democrat House and Senate members, support this bill,” House Majority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) said at a news conference with 30 other GOP lawmakers, according to the Springfield State JournalRegister.

“The legislators drew their districts and they used unreliable, flawed data,” Durkin said. “Gov. Pritzker, …it is time to lead, time to push the politics of the House and Senate aside in favor of all citizens. Governor, keep your word. Veto this politically drawn map.”

While Pritzker said he would veto an unfair map, “I have also said that in order for us to have an independent commission, we needed to have a constitutional amendment, something that would actually change the way the process operates today,” CHANGE Illinois quoted him. “That did not happen.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, detailed official census data is not expected before July 30, so the legislative mapmakers used the American Community Survey, a Census Bureau product that samples far fewer households, for the once-a-decade redistricting.

“These maps use 5-year sampling data that we know undercounts Illinoisans by 41,877 people,” CHANGE Illinois Executive Director Madeleine Doubek said.

Missing the June 30 map deadline would mean that Democrats in power would have to submit to a state constitution requirement for an appointed commission comprised of four Democrats and four Republicans.

Historically, this appointed commission has not succeeded, Doubek said. “Three out of the four times when a backup commission was used, commissioners were deadlocked and needed a tiebreaker.” One new prospective commissioner was chosen from each political party and a name was pulled from a Lincoln hat. If it were a Republican’s name, that party would control map drawing, despite the Democratic supermajorities in the legislature.

“Control leads to political map abuse,” Illinois Policy said in late April. “The 2011 map drawn by Democrats forced incumbent Republicans into the same district to either face primaries against each other or abandon re-election. Republicans did the same thing in 1991 when they drew the maps.” In the 2018 election, for example, nearly half of Illinois House and Senate seats were uncontested, which results in less voter turnout and less responsiveness by legislators.

The redistricting appointee process would also delay release of the maps until fall, close to filing deadlines for the 2022 primaries. Prospective candidates would not know what their districts look like.

Although the detailed count is delayed until July, the Census Bureau delivered total state counts in April (see related story). Illinois will lose just one seat in the U.S. Congress, so perhaps the nearly $45 million Illinois spent last year in census outreach could be called a success. (The Illinois General Assembly did not undertake the congressional remap.)

Illinois spent more per capita than any other state to prevent undercounts of “hard to count people” that could cost the state up to two seats in Congress relative to states that had gained population. The number of seats in Congress is fixed at 435 and the U.S. Constitution requires the census every 10 years to determine how to allocate them.

StreetWise vendors were involved in the hub-and-spoke system of “regional intermediaries,” (RIs) or “trusted messengers” to “hard-to-count” communities such as immigrants, people who are homeless, or LGBTQ. The RIs met with people like themselves and talked about the importance of filling out the census, not only for congressional representation, but for allocating $675 billion annually: to programs including Medicare, Medicaid, federal highway money, Pell Grants, Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF), school lunches and more.

– Suzanne Hanney, from online sources