Rockford Sun

Advocates of legislation introduced in the Illinois State Senate this session say that they want to add transparency to the redistricting process by creating an independent commission to handle the process.

State Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Rockford) posted about the proposed legislation, titled The People’s Independent Maps Act, on his official Facebook page. He said that recent hearings have emphasized the need for reforming the process by which the maps of Illinois’ legislative districts are drawn.

“Over the past several weeks, we have listened and participated in redistricting hearings where we heard [from] witnesses who testified over and over again on the lack of transparency and communication in this redistricting process,” he said in his post.

A graphic Syverson shared stated that the bill would remove political influence by taking politicians and insiders out of the map-drawing process, would require the map to reflect the demographic makeups of the state, and would ensure that party affiliation of the panel is evenly split along with independents.

“The People’s Independent Maps Act, Senate Bill 1325, is about ensuring that our legislative maps are not drawn by politicians who benefit directly from unfair maps,” Syverson said in his post.

A press release from the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus stated that the current process has led to an increasingly unbalanced legislature, and that SB 1325 would fix that.

“The legislation moves Illinois from a broken system where politicians choose their voters to a process where the people choose their politicians,” Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods), was quoted as saying in the release.

Having an independent process for redistricting already has strong popular support, according to coverage by Crain’s Chicago Business. Public polls have shown that approximately 75% of voters in Illinois support an independent process that gives politicians less influence over who will vote for them.