Sangamon Sun

Illinois state Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) thinks it's time lawmakers respected voters enough to allow them to truly select their representatives.

"I think part of this is not only respecting everything that we have to respect under the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution but also disrespecting communities-at-large like the fact that my neighbors a few blocks down the street from where I live in Springfield have a representative who lives in Decatur," Butler told lawmakers during a recent House Redistricting Committee hearing in Peoria about the growing debate over the need to change the way voting maps are drawn in Illinois.

"I think that's what a lot of people think," he said. "They don't understand why the lines get drawn, well, we know how."

Lawmakers have been holding redistricting hearings in various areas throughout Illinois. Redistricting is necessary after each decennial census to adjust for population changes within district boundaries for the Illinois House and Senate.

Republicans are seeking to reconfigure the redistricting process. 

Through their People's Independent Maps Act, 

As a solution, many are now pushing the People's Independent Maps Act. This measure would give the state Supreme Court the power to appoint 16 independent citizen commissioners to an independent redistricting commission with 30 days of passage, completely taking the task of map redrawing out of the hands of state lawmakers.

"We need to respect communities as they've been," Butler said.