Sangamon Sun

After the Friday night release of the Democrats’ maps, House Redistricting Committee Minority Spokesperson Tim Butler (R-Springfield) questioned the data used to draw the maps.

He dubbed the Democrats' action as a sham of the process and again called on Gov. Pritzker, during a May 24 news conference, to veto the maps.

“What has happened over the last several days is the opposite of transparency,” Butler said. “To have maps in a PDF format straight out of 1990s clip art released Friday night at 7:30 and then to be followed up late Sunday with a Google map, it really does nothing for transparency. These maps were put out without any data. I have asked — all our members on the committee have asked — where is the data, where's the data, Democrats?”

Butler believes the maps were drawn using the American Community Survey Data.

“[It] is not the data that is needed to draw the new boundaries for legislative maps,” he stated. “We need the decennial census data that won't be out until August to be able to draw these maps. Frankly, these maps make a joke of the redistricting process and are a slap in the face of the public who have been demanding fairness and openness to this process…we don't even know if the districts contain the right population to be able to be drawn correctly.”

Similar to Leader Jim Durkin, who spoke prior to him, Butler demanded that Pritzker reject the map. He insisted and stressed how the Democrats have been disrespectful.

“The majority continues to refuse to answer questions about the data; it's a mockery of the process,” Butler said. “It's why we have called time and time again for openness and fairness and a redistricting commission that many of us have championed in a bipartisan way over the last decade and remind you we went to bat for a redistricting process when we had a Republican governor as well. So today, I call on the governor to veto these maps which were drawn unfairly in a manner that we don't even know what the data is and it's obvious that they are for partisan political gain.”

Redistricting is a once-in-a-decade process based on the data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The data for this year’s process has been delayed due to the pandemic.

The Illinois State constitution provides that lawmakers should pass new legislative maps by the end of June.  An eight-person bipartisan commission will take over if the maps will not be available by the set deadline. If again no maps have been agreed and approved, a ninth member is randomly chosen by the Illinois secretary of state. The nine-member commission will have until Oct. 5 to present a new map.