Central Illinois lawmakers split along party lines as the Illinois House approved a proposed amendment to reform the state's redistricting laws.
The amendment, which moves on to the Illinois Senate, must be approved by May 3 to get on the fall ballot for voters. It adds that no citizen should be denied the opportunity to participate in the political process and allows for the creation of racial coalitions or influence districts.
Democratic state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, representing Peoria, said this amendment would protect minority voting rights and ensure Voting Rights Act protections are able to continue in Illinois.
"The Supreme Court is poised to gut the Voting Rights Act," she said. "We have to understand what we are dealing with. It literally is the last meaningful protection against racial discrimination in voting. The gains [Illinois has] made are because of the Voting Rights Act."
Democratic House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch is the lead sponsor.
"What this does is make sure we put stronger protections in place to make sure no matter what a person’s race is, they have a fair chance of being here, in this body, fighting for their people," Welch said.
The current law only required districts to be “compact, contiguous and equal in population,” which are still part of the proposed amendment.
Republican state Rep. Ryan Spain of Peoria has concerns about the proposed amendment creating a priority ranking of requirements on redistricting, with the lowest priority for districts is to be contiguous and compact. He said the Democrats' proposal is in response to a lawsuit filed by Republicans that alleged the current Illinois House and Senate maps violate the Illinois Constitution.
The case was dismissed because the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Republicans waited too long to file the lawsuit.
“The initiative moved forward by Speaker Welch upends the safeguards of fair districting that have been abused already in Illinois, and doubles down on further cheating the system to disenfranchise voters,” Spain said.
The amendment would create a priority ranking of each of the requirements for making the House district map.
Spain said the proposed priority system would further disenfranchise voters by having contiguous and compact being last on the priority list.
Spain said he has attempted to pass amendments to stop partisan gerrymandering but these amendments have never gotten a vote.
“There have been dozens and dozens of attempts to do this, to create a fair map commission to make partisan gerrymandering harder to achieve,” Spain said. “In the state of Illinois, none of them have been advanced or called for a vote.”
Spain’s proposed amendment would create a commission with members from both political parties that could create a map with more competitive districts.
The Trump administration has been pressuring Republican states to redistrict their congressional maps before the next census, which prompted Democrat states like California and now Virginia to do the same.
Spain said he was against any political party in any state creating district maps that favor their party.
“Our caucus as House Republicans has never stood for the allowance of gerrymandering in any context, whether it's done by Republicans, which we've seen in places in the country,” Spain said.
Spain said Illinois voters should also have a say in how national House district maps are drawn and wants the language to be clear what this amendment will do if it goes in front of voters in November.
Illinois Democrats said the amendment would not change any of the requirements that districts be compact, contiguous and nearly equal population. It would only protect minority voices when voting.
House votes
- (R) Jason Bunting - No
- (D) Sharon Chung - Yes
- (R) Regan Deering - No
- (D) Jehan Gordon-Booth - Yes
- (R) Bill Hauter - No
- (R) Ryan Spain - No
- (R) Dennis Tipsword - No
- (R) Travis Weaver - No
