THIS INFOGRAPHIC SHOWS WHY WE NEED REDISTRICTING REFORM TO END GERRYMANDERING

MATT DIETRICH
JUN 18, 2014
Reboot Illinois

The creative drawing (some would say gerrymandering) of Illinois General Assembly district maps for political gain has become a once-a-decade tradition in Illinois. It’s a privilege political leaders have come to cherish more than any other.

When you hold the crayon that draws district boundaries, you can carve out very friendly territory for members of your party. You also can chop up the opposing party’s geographic strongholds and stick them onto districts where voter affiliation favors your party. Even better than diluting your rival’s influence is using your map-drawing power to exact vengeance on a troublesome lawmaker, whose home can be conveniently placed outside the district he or she represents.

And that just scratches the surface of why Illinois needs redistricting reform. There’s awhole lot more here and here.

There’s also a less publicized reason why Illinois voters would be better served if a neutral, non-political body defined the territory their legislators represent. That’s the crazy system the Illinois Constitution lays out for deciding who gets to draw the map if the governor, House and Senate can’t forge an agreement. In theory, a new map should be passed like any other bill: approved by the House and Senate and then signed by the governor. In practice, if those three entities are not controlled by a single party, the normal legislative process goes out the window in favor of a winner-take-all sweepstakes.

The constitution contains provisions designed to force lawmakers to compromise on a map if the governor and two chambers can’t agree. It calls for creation of a bipartisan committee to work out a map. If the committee deadlocks, the power to draw and approve the map comes down to the luck of the draw. Of the five legislative maps drawn since the 1970 constitution went into effect, only two have not ended in a random name being drawn from a hat (or, in one case, a crystal bowl).

The 1971 map was a true compromise between a Republican governor, a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. The 2011 map was drawn and approved by Democrats, who controlled both chambers and the governor’s office. In the three remaps in between, the parties went all-or-nothing, choosing luck of the draw over compromise. Democrats won twice. Republicans got lucky in 1991. (For an excellent history of redistricting in Illinois, see this report from Roosevelt University political scientist Paul Green. Scroll to page 17 for post-1970 map-drawing history.)

Lost in the process is the interest of the voters who live in the districts that result from this game. The graphic below gives a more entertaining version of this history. No matter how this issue is presented, the message is the same: It’s time to get the politics and politicians out of the district-mapping business. Click the image to open in a new window, then click again to enlarge.