What is redistricting? And why should we care?
To help answer these questions, we partnered with CHANGE Illinois for a virtual Members-only briefing led by guest speaker Liliana Scales (Advocacy Director, CHANGE Illinois), who demystified Illinois’s redistricting process for us and laid out a few simple ways we can all use our power to keep the process fair and equitable.
What is redistricting?
Every ten years following the United States Census, the state governments redraw the electoral districts, essentially deciding which communities vote for which representatives in local, state, and federal elections. This process is called redistricting.
A breakdown on how this happens in Illinois:
First, the Illinois General Assembly — the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois State Senate — draws the state maps. These proposed districts must be substantially equal in population, reasonably compact and contiguous, and adhere to the requirements in the Federal Voting Rights Act and the Illinois Voting Rights Act.
Then, once approved by simple majority, the Illinois General Assembly sends these state maps to the governor for approval.
In the event of an impasse or veto, an eight-member legislative redistricting commission is formed. If the commission cannot reach an agreement, the names of one Republican and one Democrat are put in a hat and randomly selected as a tiebreaker. (Fun fact: one time it was pulled out of a replica of Lincoln’s stovepipe hat!)
Why should we care?
Liliana admits redistricting is not a sexy concept. “It’s cumbersome, it’s policy-wonky, it can be a turnoff, it can push people away, like, “Ahhh, I don’t have time to think about this!”
But, she points out, it is designed that way for a reason: to distract us from gerrymandering.
Gerrymandering: when redistricting goes wrong
Gerrymandering is the practice of drawing district lines (redistricting) in a way that favors a political party. This is perfectly illustrated in the graphic below.
This graphic shows three scenarios. The first scenario presents a block of 50 squares: 20 red and 30 blue, arranged in 10 rows and 5 columns. Columns one and two consist of red squares, and columns three, four, and five consist of blue squares. The accompanying caption says: 50 precincts: 60% blue, 40% red.
The second and third scenarios are nearly identical to the first, but have black outlines dividing their blocks into five sections in different ways.
Scenario two shows the five sections equally divided into rows of two. Each section favors the blue. The accompanying caption says: fifty precincts, five districts—Blue: 5, Red: 0. BLUE WINS.
Scenario three shows the five sections weaving throughout the squares in a labyrinthine, illogical manner. Three sections favor the red, and two sections favor the blue. The accompanying caption says: fifty precincts, five districts — Red: 3, Blue: 0. RED WINS.
With gerrymandering, any outcome can be controlled. This allows politicians to choose voters, instead of the other way around. This is a form of voter suppression.
Keep in mind, however, that not all odd-shaped districts are the result of gerrymandering. Chicago’s 4th district is a prime example. Nicknamed the Earmuffs District due to being shaped like — well, earmuffs — this district was drawn after federal courts ordered the creation of a majority-Hispanic district in the Chicago area. But because this was designed to reflect community interests rather than political interests, it is not gerrymandering. This is an important distinction. For a more in-depth explanation, read Liliana’s article on this very topic!
What can we do?
In addition to contacting your legislators, Liliana urges us all to head to Representable to draw our communities of interest.
Representable is a free, accessible, open-source tool for creating maps for communities of interest (COI). COIs are groups of individuals who share common social and economic interests, who are likely to have similar political concerns. A COI comes in many forms: it could be a neighborhood, it could be a group brought together by a common interest (like country of origin), it could be an environmental interest (i.e. this group of people are soybean farmers), it could be a church group, the possibilities are endless.
Over half the states have legal requirements to respect COIs, but before Representable, no tools existed to get these COIs to mapmakers. This is where you and the disability community come in.
Go to www.representable.org/drive/we-draw-the-lines/ and navigate to the Draw My Community button. There, you will:
- Sign up for an account (it’s free!).
- Identify your communities of interest.
- Draw a community map using the built-in map tools.
- Share your map to use for public testimony.
Mapping your community and identifying its shared interests allows public officials to take your community’s concerns into account. This input is invaluable.
Heads up — You must submit Illinois COIs by March 1st.
*Note: Illinois doesn’t require consideration of COIs, but advocates are pushing for changes that would make consideration of COIs a requirement in redistricting. This doesn’t mean your legislators won’t take COIs into consideration, though, so don’t let this deter you from submitting your COIs!
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