Illinois state Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Raymond)
Illinois state Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Raymond)
Illinois state Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Raymond) recently took a stand for fair maps in Illinois while appearing on a WTIM morning show.
“In Illinois, legislative maps are drawn by politicians to benefit those who are in power,” Bourne was quoted as saying in a press release, describing the crusade as one of her top priorities. “We must change it so that voters get to pick their representatives and districts are drawn fairly. Gov. J.B. Pritzker ran on supporting fair maps, but he has yet to call on the legislature to pass it.”
Critics of the current system contend that it has gotten so bad that lawmakers are now able to pick their voters as opposed to the other way around. They point to the fact that in 2018 almost half of all House and Senate seats combined that were up for reelection found incumbents running unopposed.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker
“Now is the time to make this important policy change before the 2020 census and another decade of gerrymandered, partisan legislative districts,” Bourne said.
Currently, Illinois is one of 35 states that grants lawmakers the power to redraw their own legislative districts, essentially safeguarding their seats against would-be challengers. As a candidate, Pritzker vowed to change the system.
“We should amend the constitution to create an independent commission to draw legislative maps, and I have supported this effort for years,” Pritzker wrote in a candidate profile months before his election to office Four years earlier, CHANGE Illinois reports that Pritzker donated $50,000 to a fair-maps initiative.
Legislative maps are now drawn every decade in Illinois and require the approval of both the House and the Senate before being signed off on by the governor. In the event there is a stalemate, party leadership is entrusted with appointing an eight-member committee in hopes of resolving the issue. If need be, the Secretary of State appoints a tie-breaking ninth partisan by random chance, with the winning party left to draw the map as representatives see fit.
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