FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For all inquiries, please contact:
Eli Brottman
Policy Director
CHICAGO, Ill. — Today, CHANGE Illinois released Removing Politics From Local Remapping: A Path Towards Fair and Equitable Representation. This is a comprehensive report that provides an analysis of 2021 Chicagoland County Board redistricting, focusing on the 7-county Chicago Metropolitan Area: Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will Counties.
Authored by CHANGE Illinois Policy Director Eli Brottman, the report analyzes various aspects of the recent redistricting process, including racial equity, partisan bias, compactness, and public input, along with providing examples to show how the county board maps can be improved. The report concludes with strong recommendations on how counties can improve their redistricting process and be a guiding example of how nonpartisan redistricting can be done locally and across the nation.
“Partisan gerrymandering and lack of constituent input, among other things, are frequent problems at the local level, too,” said CHANGE Illinois Policy Director Eli Brottman. “While state and federal maps often receive the most attention, it is crucial that we also take action at the local level to ensure fair mapping. Local governments have significant impacts on people’s day to day lives, and people deserve quality representation locally that reflects the diversity of our communities. We hope that county officials consider implementing independent processes to draw their local maps, and we are eager to work with them on putting this into place.”
The report details issues with transparency and public input in the mapping process, improvements that can be made in racial equity and compactness of districts, and clear instances of partisan gerrymandering in a couple counties. Most, if not all, of these issues can be easily rectified by changing the mapping process.
In each county, the establishment of an independent commission for county board mapping would rectify many of these issues, and put people over politics. Eliminating the use of multi-member districts would also improve racial equity. CHANGE Illinois looks forward to working with county boards to implement these changes.
CHANGE Illinois is a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on equitable democracy, including fair maps, voting access, and ethics reform. Learn more about CHANGE Illinois at www.changeil.org, and read the full report at https://www.changeil.org/county-local-redistricting-reform/.
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