The General Assembly met late on Tuesday evening and Democrats pushed through new redistricting maps. Redistricting is done every ten years following the census.  Democrats didn’t wait for the census data and passed maps in early June based off preliminary reports from smaller censuses. Once the census data was released on August 12th, a vote was held on August 31st to push through new maps. Republicans were not happy as they said that once again the process was pushed through with little notice and no details of the proposals have been released to the public. State Senator Chapin Rose didn’t mince words on it saying that Democrats are trying hijack democracy. 

“If you’ve had any remaining belief that Illinois Democrats cared even the slightest bit about democracy or the voices of the people of Illinois, it’s gone now. They have once again held a series of farcical public hearings, many with next to no public notice. Then they went right back behind closed doors, ignored the pleas of their own constituents, and drew a new map that is designed to do only one thing: maintain the Democrats’ stranglehold over the people of Illinois.”

State Senator Steve McClure asked how many maps is it going to take before they allow Republicans to get involved in the process.

State Representative Avery Bourne voiced her disappointment with the bill. 

Republicans had been asking for a separate committee to put out their own maps. Democrats had posted online a way to submit your own maps. 

State Representative Lisa Hernandez says everyone was heard.

Redistricting is a process that occurs every ten years, normally following the decennial Census. This year, the majority Democrats didn’t wait for U.S. Census data to be released and instead passed maps in early June.