Metro East Sun

Rep. Avery Bourne (R-Morrisonville) urged the governor to veto the Democratic-drawn legislative maps and instead rely on an independent commission to draw maps.

At a May 24 news conference, she also deemed the current process flawed.

“This is, as Rep. (Tim) Butler (R-Springfield) said, a slap in the face to any kind of fair representation,” Bourne said. “If we aren't counting all of Illinois’ residents, the map is inherently flawed and we are not adequately representing them in the legislature. This error in their process will have lasting effects on Illinois residents if it’s allowed to pass.”

Bourne did not miss the opportunity to repeat her demand to the governor.

“I'm again calling on Gov. Pritzker. This is a flawed process, you must uphold your pledge to veto this map,” she said. “With zero trust in the ACS data or in the Democrats’ backroom process, there can't be any real faith in the resulting map. Every Illinoisan has a right to fair representation and their voices cannot be ignored. We've seen that their voices throughout this redistricting process have been ignored which will result in 10 more years of their voices being ignored in the legislature. People deserve to be counted and these maps do not show that.”

She urged that the Democratic-drawn maps should not be considered.

“A flawed process produces a flawed product which is exactly what we have in these new maps,” the Morrisonville representative said. “These new maps were allegedly created using the American Community Survey data, we're not sure what else, and over 20 advocacy groups over the weekend put out a statement talking about how this is an undercount of Illinoisans … we have other options. The ACS and a fast-tracked map by the end of May 31st is not the only path forward.”

The Illinois constitution states that the General Assembly shall redistrict the legislative districts and the representative districts using U.S. Census data. However, the bureau’s work has been affected by the pandemic, causing the delay in the release of data.

The state constitution also requires that the new redistricting plan be provided by the legislators by the end of June.  If they fail, a bipartisan commission with eight members will be the next responsible panel to create the maps. If they failed too, a ninth member would be randomly selected by the Illinois secretary of state. The nine-member commission will have until Oct. 5 to create the new redistricting plan.