Sangamon Sun

State Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) isn’t sure what the hurry is when it comes to creating a new system of subcircuit maps for Cook County.

Under the new mapping systems released earlier this month, the number of subcircuits in Cook County will increase from 15 to 20, due to the population growth in the Chicagoland area. The subcircuits will be substantially equalized to better reflect the population and demographic shifts that have occurred across the county during the past three decades.

“If these aren’t going to be effective until 2024, then what is the rush?” Butler said during a Dec. 16 hearing on subcircuit maps. “You said we needed to get these done as soon as possible, but if these aren’t effective until 2024, that gives us the 2022 session and the 2023 session that could take advantage of this. The 2023 general assembly could have a totally different makeup than we have today.”

Butler has called the process a “farce” and says it is not effective. Opponents of subcircuits have said the new mapping will create more politics in the selection of judges and result in less qualified judges being elected. Proponents of subcircuit suggest they are needed because judges should have varied backgrounds to better draw from their own experiences and have a better understanding of the communities they serve when ruling their cases.

Cook County was initially divided into 15 subcircuits. Voters, under the new system in November, elected 31 new circuit judges from the 15 districts. Eventually, 11 judges will be elected from each district.

Their election for retention will be county-wide. Beyond the 165 subcircuit positions, judges will still be elected county-wide, and the bench will continue to make appointments of associate judges to complete its roster. The new system will result in the number of associate judges being significantly trimmed. Some of the associate judgeships that become vacant will be assigned to a subcircuit for an election of full circuit judges. Exactly when all the 165 positions will be filled by subcircuit elections is impossible to predict due to a variety of variables.

Nine of the 31 new judges are African-American and two are Hispanic. These numbers barely increase African-American and Hispanic overall percentages as judges in the Cook County Circuit Court, but remain significant as part of the subcircuit total.  Consider blacks accounted for only 13 % of each bench before the election, and 29% of those elected from subcircuit districts in November were African-American, which is comparable to the country population that is 25% black.  

Hispanics, women, and Republicans also made gains in Cook County Circuit Court as voters elected two Hispanics, 12 women and seven Republicans from the subcircuits.