Metro East Sun

With the deadline to finalize the new legislative maps barely two months away, Republican lawmakers are baffled and unhappy that Democrats insist on using American Community Survey data for the remapping rather than official U.S. Census data. 

In an April 21 report by WCIA News, state Sen. Christopher Belt (D-Centreville) defended the use of ACS data, which critics have dubbed only suitable for political purposes. Belt said that minority and underserved community data is incomplete in this year's U.S. Census because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"People were afraid of the pandemic," Belt said. "[They were] afraid to come out and take part in the census."

Eastern St. Louis Mayor Robert Eastern III also cited the pandemic as an issue in getting minority populations counted, saying that the city had gone through great engagement and advertising efforts to get underserved communities involved. 

Critics say that ACS data is easier to manipulate and less accurate; Republicans are frustrated that the official U.S. Census data is being tossed to the side. 

House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch said in a 2016 op-ed that the longtime gerrymandering of minority populations in Illinois would be prevented by an independent remapping commission. He stated that an independent remapping commission would be a "win-win" and a solution to a process that “has often been criticized as too political and one where voters are left without a voice."  

Welch seems to have changed course in his commitment to fairly drawn maps after getting elected into office, a Chicago Tribune editorial said.

If the statehouse can't finalize the maps by June 30, the process will be deferred to an independent commission. Critics feel that engagement in the redistricting hearings have been minimal at best. 

“I testified at the hearing and it’s the process itself,” former House candidate Marco Sukovic told the Prairie State Wire earlier this month. “It’s not one that engaged the public in any meaningful, substantive manner. I asked the senate redistricting committee to give me two figures. The first how many people have participated in these hearings to date, keep in mind they are about halfway through with these hearings, and they told me only 46 people have. You’re thinking about a state of over 12 million people and only 46 people have participated.”