Share the article: Democrats Double Down on Map Debacle

Moments ago, Illinois Democrats in the House and Senate passed their do-over redistricting map after relying on faulty population estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS) back in May. Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement in response:

“Democrats are back at it again disenfranchising voters and putting politicians before the people of Illinois. Back in May, Democrats employed a sham redistricting process devoid of transparency that was lambasted by good government and community advocacy groups relentlessly. They doubled down on that process in their cleanup efforts this week and the result is a map drawn by and for politicians behind closed doors – again.”

House and Senate Democrats repeatedly said that population data from the American Community Survey would be accurate enough to warrant going forward with redistricting before official census data was released by the federal government in August. Republicans and a multitude of good government and community groups said otherwise and asked Democrats to wait for the census data and to follow through on their past support for an independent mapmaking commission.

Democrats refused, went back on their word supporting an independent commission, ignored advice on not using ACS data, and rammed through their initial redistricting map on a party-line vote. Unsurprisingly, official census data showed their first map was wildly flawed with a 30% variance between the House district populations.

The ILGOP has joined the House and Senate Republicans in their pending lawsuit asking the courts to step in and strike down this unconstitutional map and move to a bi-partisan mapmaking commission as outlined by the state constitution.

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