Redistricting in your state:

Redistricting News

Fair Maps advocates are pushing lawmakers to create an advisory independent redistricting commission that could hold hearings, collect community input, and draw maps to recommend to lawmakers. The proposal would require unprecedented transparency with a series of public hearings and an opportunity for community input before and after maps are proposed. Additionally, the proposal would require committing to writing a compliance report that explains how the proposed maps comply with the U.S. Constitution, the Illinois Constitution, and the Illinois Voting Rights Act. The changes would also require that lawmakers consider communities of interest as a criterion for remapping along with other fairness criteria ranked in order of priority.

How Representable Can Help

Representable will help you tell the legislative committees, backup commission, or proposed advisory commission about your Community and visualize a map of its boundaries. Then, line-drawers can fairly consider your Community when they draw new voting district lines.

Currently, state legislative districts must be:

1. compact
2. contiguous
3. substantially equal in population

In order not to diminish the representation of communities of color and language groups, state legislative maps must follow the requirements set forth in:

1. the Federal Voting Rights Act
2. the Illinois Voting Rights Act

In the redistricting process, Illinois doesn't yet require consideration of communities of interest (COIs), but advocates are pushing for changes that would make consideration of COIs a requirement in redistricting. A community of interest is a population that shares cultural, historical, demographic, or economic interests. Communities of interest do not necessarily share the same political viewpoints or support for certain candidates or political parties.