Metro East Sun

State Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Morrisonville) has every intention of holding Gov. J.B. Pritzker to his word when it comes to his pledges on map redistricting.

“We want to give you a little bit of overview about what has happened and to hold the governor accountable to his promise to veto any unfair map or one that was drawn by partisans, politicians or their staff,” Bourne said in a video on the subject posted to YouTube. “We have now completed our committee hearing process. Overall, we had over 40 hearings where we’ve gotten input from the public, from organizations advocating for a fair and independent map process.”

Conducted once every decade, the remapping process determines legislative districts. When Pritzker was running for governor, he vowed to veto any map drawn in a partisan fashion.

While the task normally goes to the party in control, Republican lawmakers are hopeful delays in data being available will mean their party having more of a say in a process. Bylaws dictate if a new map is not completed by a June 30 deadline, a bipartisan commission with four members from each party chosen by party leaders will supervise redistricting.

Bourne is hoping that the witnesses who testified will ultimately make a difference.

“It is our hope that those people did not waste their time as we have seen these maps being drawn behind closed doors. I think if we take that combined input, our process would look much different from what it looks like now.”