Rep. Ryan Spain wants Gov. Pritzker to veto the latest proposed legislative maps. | Facebook
Rep. Ryan Spain wants Gov. Pritzker to veto the latest proposed legislative maps. | Facebook
Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) is urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to take action following last week’s release of new legislative maps in Illinois.
House and Senate Democrats drew the the latest version of the maps less than a day after a bill was passed to create them, according to the Illinois Newsroom. The redistricting bill passed both the Senate and House on a party-line vote of 41-18 and 71-45, respectively.
“It is now up to Governor Pritzker to keep his campaign pledge to the people of Illinois, veto this partisan map, and end gerrymandering in our state,” Spain wrote in a May 29 Facebook post.
The mapmaking process has raised concerns from many Republicans, including Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield), who said the newest legislative maps were released “without any advance notice” which affected the public's ability to offer insight at the redistricting committee hearings on May 28.
At the meeting, chairman Rep. Elizabeth Hernandez (D-Cicero) said she only recently learned that the only data source used for population estimates was the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the Illinois Newsroom reported. Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) said he thought constituents would be surprised that Hernandez, a sponsor of the bill, didn’t know exactly what data was being used to calculate population estimates until the hearings took place.
In addition to legislative maps, Illinois lawmakers approved maps for judicial districts outside of Cook County.
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