Metro East Sun

State Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Litchfield) is proving to be more than willing to take on the role of the voice of the people in the fight for fair maps.

“I’m here today to reinforce what we’ve heard over the last months, but particularly over the weekend from Illinois residents and community groups who are extremely concerned that their voices were not heard in the development of this resulting new legislative map proposal,” Bourne said in a video posted to YouTube. “Late Friday, as has been mentioned, we saw a new map proposal released by Democrats that we still don’t know what data they used or what process they used to reach this result.”

Bourne has long sounded the alarm over what she sees as an uneven process when it comes to the way legislative maps are drawn.

“A flawed process produces a flawed product, which is what we have in these new maps,” Bourne added. “These maps were allegedly created using the American Community Survey data, we’re not sure what else. If we aren’t counting all of Illinois residents, the map is inherently flawed and we are not adequately representing them in the legislature.”

Bourne argues it’s easy to see how the process can be made fairer and more in line with the way most residents have indicated they would like to see things done.

“Voters across the state, the governor and members of majority party have expressed concerns with this process over the last decade and have gone so far as to vote for proposals that would change this process,” she added. “The clock is ticking on this issue. We cannot afford another decade of politicians picking their voters.”

Due to the delay of federal Census Bureau data largely caused by COVID-19, a bipartisan panel may redraw the maps this year. While the task normally goes to the party in control, Republican lawmakers are hopeful delays in data being available will open the door to them having a greater say in the 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.