Last week CHANGE Illinois Policy Director, Eli Brottman, traveled to Springfield for the first week of the veto session to continue our work to build a more equitable democracy. Eli met with lawmakers to help us prepare for the 2026 session, where we will focus on improving access to voting and campaign finance reform. Many lawmakers, in both the House and Senate, agree that we need to do everything possible to protect our democracy and make it easier for people to have access to the ballot box. We look forward to introducing legislation after the second week of the veto session wraps up.

This week, state legislators head back to Springfield for the final week of the veto session. While it is expected for the House of Representatives to renew their efforts to pass an elections omnibus package, it is not clear whether or not the Senate will be willing to pass election reform by the end of the week. The election reform proposed improves many voting access provisions including strengthening automatic voter registration, expanding voting at public universities, streamlining the vote-by-mail system, and others. We urge Senate President Harmon to agree to the election reforms to strengthen our democracy. 

Other discussions we are monitoring closely are a last-ditch effort by the U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies to further gerrymander Illinois congressional districts in response to gerrymandering that is happening in other, Republican-controlled states across the country including Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri. A remap remains unlikely to happen as candidates for Congress are already in the midst of submitting petition signatures to be eligible for the ballot. If a new congressional remap were to pass, lawmakers would need to extend the deadline to collect signatures in the new districts and, likely, change Illinois’ primary election date. Additionally, members of the Illinois Black Caucus have expressed concerns about the possibility of diluting Black representation, since the remap would likely reduce Black communities’ influence in a number of districts in order to increase the number of winnable seats for Democrats. We are highly concerned with renewed efforts to gerrymander Illinois’ congressional districts, especially any that would split Black communities and reduce their ability to influence the outcomes of the election. 

We will keep you posted on any progress made or legislation heard. Locally and nationally, it will be a busy week of news!