Will County Gazette

Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) is pushing lawmakers to give voters the one thing they seem to want most in the ongoing map redistricting debate.

"This is our seventh redistricting hearing in the last week, and while participation has been limited to short notice, there's been a couple of important scenes that have been repeated by witnesses from across the state and across the political spectrum," Rezin said during a recent Senate Redistricting hearing for Kankakee and Will counties. "The first is transparency. Witness after witness has been critical of the lack of transparency in this process. That includes requests for more robust public engagement, more notice of hearings and for answers on how the public can draw their maps and what data we should be using."

With lawmakers now ensconced in a boiling debate over far map drawing, Republicans have propped up the People's Independent Maps Act as their preferred solution.

With Census Bureau data typically used to draw the maps not expected to be available before a June 30 deadline, the measure would give the state Supreme Court the power to appoint 16 independent citizen commissioners to a redistricting commission within 30 days of passage.

Whatever comes to be, Rezin said, voters have clearly expressed they want to be heard.

"What we've heard from witnesses is that if you want true engagement, then slow the process down," she said. "There's no need to rush and pass maps with inaccurate data by June 30 when the real constitutional deadline is not until October Witnesses have said, repeatedly, we need to use the delay on the census data as an opportunity to make this process better, an opportunity to truly engage the citizens of the state and allow better participation."

 Legislative redistricting occurs every 10 years, soon after the census population data is updated. Generally, the majority legislative party sets the new map. Republicans, who are in the minority in the Illinois House and Senate, are pushing for the independent body to create the map that will be used for elections over the next 10 years.