Rep. Tim Butler | youtube.com/
Rep. Tim Butler | youtube.com/
On Friday night Democratic lawmakers released their newly-drawn House and Senate district maps.
The after-hours release raised the ire of Republicans. “Tonight’s drop of partisan maps is yet another attempt to mislead voters in an effort to block fair elections,” said Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield), the Republican spokesperson of the House Redistricting Committee. “After so many promises made by Democrats to have an open and transparent process involving the public."
Republican lawmakers say Democrats are continuing former House Speaker Mike Madigan’s way of drawing maps the way he did 30 years ago: using gerrymandering to disenfranchise voters.
Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria) said this proves that the “Mike Madigan playbook continues in the Illinois House.”
Butler sees some hope of independently drawn maps. If these new maps haven't been approved by the June 30 deadline set by the constitution, Butler said there’s another deadline to meet.
“It lays out a deadline that goes all the way to Oct. 5, that if the legislature doesn’t act, the bipartisan commission takes place,” Butler said.
When he was running for governor, J.B. Pritzker pledged to veto maps drawn by lawmakers. It remains to be seen if he will veto Friday's maps.
Civic leaders fear that gerrymandering will lead to minority communities losing representation.
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