When you have few or no choices on your primary election ballot in a few weeks, blame gerrymandering. When the violence in our cities escalates and the response remains utterly inadequate, blame gerrymandering.

It’s heartening to see some focus lately on the scourge that first started to ruin our democracy, gerrymandering: “In Illinois politics, remaps keep the powerful in power,” Feb. 2.

The author highlighted gerrymandering’s effect on congressional representation, but our state representative and senate districts also were drawn to advantage the party in power and its incumbents, in this case, the Democrats. After the 1990 census, it was Republicans who won remap power and did the gerrymandering, just as the GOP did recently in many states.

What also doesn’t get nearly enough attention and examination in explorations of gerrymandering is its effect on people.

Gerrymandering frequently is framed as a power struggle between Republicans and Democrats, but it’s the people and accountable government that is flushed away by the gerrymanders.

The fact is, it’s extraordinarily challenging for Altgeld Gardens residents and Englewood residents, many of whom have spoken loudly and often about how they wanted and needed fewer City Council members cutting up their communities, to get city help. How can people in Englewood get help if they have to reach five separate ward offices?

A resident-led commission held more than 40 public hearings that centered what kind of community representation people in neighborhoods of the city wanted. That commission modeled a people-centered way to draw districts, but the powerful kept their power by drawing the lines and prioritizing themselves over residents.

Why should you care? When you have few or no choices on your ballot in a few weeks, blame gerrymandering. When the violence in our cities escalates and the response remains utterly inadequate, blame gerrymandering. When stores move away or restaurants shutter, part of the blame lies with gerrymandering.

When elected officials gerrymander local, state and congressional districts and pick their voters, they preserve a corrupt system and make it a slam dunk they don’t have to listen to you.

They’ve made it incredibly challenging to stop this skewing. Yet, if we want responsive, accountable government, we all have to keep demanding an end to the district rigging that destroys our democratic foundations.

Madeleine Doubek, strategic adviser, CHANGE Illinois & CHANGE Illinois Action Fund

This article originally appeared as a Letter to the Editor in the Chicago Sun-Times on February 19, 2024.