Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: From Children to Seniors, Telehealth Reaches Every Demographic: Pass HB 3498 In The Senate
Next Post: Dems pack tons of Republicans together
Posted in:
* Change Illinois fundraising email excerpt…
Illinois politicians introduced the set of maps that they have been working on behind closed doors for weeks. These maps use 5-year sampling data that we know undercounts Illinoisans by 41,877 people.
We know this undercount likely has a great effect on people of color. It’s beyond alarming and disappointing. For too long, Black communities have historically been underrepresented, under-resourced, and targeted by large-scale misinformation campaigns designed to further disenfranchise them.
These maps are just another example of this disenfranchisement.
I asked if they could show specifically how people of color would be disenfranchised by the new maps, but I wasn’t given any specific examples.
* Press release…
Good government groups and community advocates strongly reject the attempt by Illinois lawmakers to introduce and pass maps that are built on an undercount of Illinoisans across the state. The proposed maps use American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year sampling data as the foundation, which undercounts Illinoisans by 41,877 people.
To exclude those people would be equivalent to excluding cities the size of Oak Park, Buffalo Grove, Quincy, or Rock Island.
The undercount is likely to have a greater effect on people of color. Black communities have historically been underrepresented, under-resourced, and targeted by large-scale misinformation campaigns designed to further disenfranchise them. The ACS data collection did not have the benefit of the historic, people-powered effort and state funding that the census did to ensure communities were counted, particularly Black communities. The ACS sampling process lacks the trusted community partnerships that are needed for an accurate count in historically disenfranchised communities.
Our state’s fastest growing populations, Asian American and Latinx communities, as well as the fastest growing counties of Kendall, Kane, Champaign, and Monroe, also are highly likely to be undercounted in the ACS sampling.
While the delay from the U.S. Census Bureau was unprecedented, the current predicament is manufactured by lawmakers for partisan advantage. Using ACS data was not lawmakers’ only option. The U.S. Census Bureau made the delays known more than a year ago when operations were severely hampered due to pandemic lockdowns, civil unrest and natural disasters in the West. In response, California and Oregon sought and were granted relief from constitutional redistricting deadlines by their state supreme courts. In Illinois, despite being given advice and options to do the same by National Conference of State Legislatures’ experts, lawmakers rejected the recommendation and even attempted to drum up fears of an undercount to discredit arguments to wait for census data.
Instead, due to the extraordinary investment by the state and efforts of hundreds of organizations, Illinois’ 2020 census count — and actual population — was much higher than the projected population from the ACS. Illinois was a leader in the nation, investing $47.5 million dollars for an accurate count and engaged more than 400 organizations to ensure residents were counted and represented.
The decisions by our current lawmakers will disenfranchise tens of thousands of voices for a decade by creating representative maps that do not include them. How is this equity for Illinois? We owe it to the people of this state and the community organizations that overcame incredible challenges to ensure an accurate Census count to wait for the census results. We owe it to vulnerable people who were hesitant to fill out the census and did so, despite concerns for their personal safety, to make sure they are counted. We owe it to the taxpayers who made a $47.5 million investment to secure an accurate count and accurate representation. Lawmakers should not settle for using the very undercount they railed against months earlier.
Everyone should count. Everyone deserves representation. Illinois deserves equitable redistricting.
We urge Illinois lawmakers to seek relief from the courts and halt current attempts to pass maps that erase thousands of Illinoisans. We urge Gov. J.B. Pritzker to fulfill his repeated pledges to veto any partisan map, but especially one built from an undercount of Illinoisans. It’s time to live up to your pledge to veto a partisan map, Governor. As repeated scientific surveys have shown, Illinoisans want independent mapping and fair representation. Illinoisans deserve better than to be erased by politicians who refuse to keep their campaign promises.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago
Better Government Association
Blackroots Alliance
CHANGE Illinois
Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community
Common Cause Illinois
Cook County Black Chamber of Commerce
Garfield Park Chamber of Commerce
Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce
Illinois Chamber of Commerce
Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition
IVI-IPO
Latino Policy Forum
League of Women Voters Illinois
League of Women Voters Chicago
NAACP South Side Branch
NWSOFA-Indivisible
One Health Englewood
Reform for Illinois
RepresentUs - Illinois
The Decalogue Society of Lawyers
The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) North Shore
United Nations Association of Greater Chicago
Workers Center for Racial Justice
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, May 24, 21 @ 8:11 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: From Children to Seniors, Telehealth Reaches Every Demographic: Pass HB 3498 In The Senate
Next Post: Dems pack tons of Republicans together
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
I’d like to see, using the Voters Rights Act rationale AND specifics within that to these claims.
I’d like to see that.
It should be easy enough if you can make these claims.
Thanks.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, May 24, 21 @ 8:17 am
=== I asked if they could show specifically how people of color would be disenfranchised by the new maps, but I wasn’t given any specific examples. ===
Don’t hold your breath, Rich.
Comment by PublicServant Monday, May 24, 21 @ 8:20 am
Yep, there goes Chris Welch disenfranchising voters of color again. /s
Comment by DTAG Monday, May 24, 21 @ 8:26 am
how does not doing redistricting before a court case help anyone? before an election yields results? if they win, won’t the relief be a new round of redistricting???
Comment by bored now Monday, May 24, 21 @ 8:26 am
Did each of those groups listed sign off on this news release?
Comment by Soccermom Monday, May 24, 21 @ 8:34 am
===but I wasn’t given any specific examples.===
What, you don’t trust us? We would never make this kind of thing up. S/
Comment by Bruce( no not him) Monday, May 24, 21 @ 8:37 am
I think -anyone- citing racial discrimination or the Voting Rights Act needs to show their work. Personally I have a hard time envisioning how a fair map is going to have Jim Crow-era like effects on minority voting power, especially when you consider that having “kingmaker” status in two districts is arguably more power than having a guaranteed member of your group in one, but I’ll keep an open mind - I just don’t want it to be a reason for gerrymanderers to hide behind (or anti-gerrymanderers to exploit).
Comment by lake county democrat Monday, May 24, 21 @ 9:17 am
I’d love to see CHANGE Illinois, which says it cares so much about people of color, tell us how standing by and watching gerrymandering in red states across America, but demanding it not happen in blue Illinois, helps people of color on a state or national basis?
Comment by Moe Berg Monday, May 24, 21 @ 9:38 am
Their argument is that the legislature should have sued in state court seeking some sort of ruling that the plain text of the state constitutional deadline does not apply because the federal agency messed up so badly — and that only the legislature could have sought that relief? Couldn’t anyone have brought a suit?
Curious if the California or Oregon cases had similar language in their state constitutions. Seems like a stretch that a state court would say the crystal clear text of the state constitution doesn’t apply because the Census bureau was incompetent this year (or more charitably, COVID/pandemic/etc or intentionally gutted by Trump hacks).
Comment by Dan Johnson Monday, May 24, 21 @ 9:44 am
Well … now we know which groups think their ox is being gored.
Too bad they couldn’t show specific data.
Comment by RNUG Monday, May 24, 21 @ 9:44 am
which groups think their ox is being gored.
Or they weren’t listened to enough?
More likely it’s just a proven way to up the fund raising take.
Comment by Fav Human Monday, May 24, 21 @ 10:10 am
show the work. some numbers up, some down. it is not possible for everyone to have it all. the discussions will be difficult and it’s not just about overrepresentation of the white population.
Comment by Amalia Monday, May 24, 21 @ 10:10 am
CHANGE stands against gerrymandering of all colors - red or blue.
Take a look at the proposed House District 71st if you want to see exhibit A.
Comment by west wing Monday, May 24, 21 @ 10:11 am
The biggest news today is that congressional Democrats may delay maps to use Census data … doing that throws the Illinois dems under the bus (since they’re using outdated data) and could strengthen the legal rationale for challenging the ACS data maps
Comment by west wing Monday, May 24, 21 @ 10:22 am
The ACS was off by one third of one percentage point? That’s actually pretty good. Far better than the alarmists at IPI and the Trib were citing.
Comment by Socially DIstant Watcher Monday, May 24, 21 @ 11:10 am
The maps actually go very far to keep the Illinois Black Caucus intact. Look at the how River North and Streeterville are used to create an additional district for the south side.
Comment by Chicagonk Monday, May 24, 21 @ 11:11 am
Is an estimate that under counts used for drawing a map bad? I mean, it’s not great.
Taking the figure provided by Change IL org they’re off by three tenths of a percent. %0.3 is a pretty small number in the grand scheme of things. I’m not sure how they’d get to certainty in some of these projections they’re making at the moment, but as I said before I am definitely not a data scientist.
I think it is very important for advocacy organizations to not create a situation where the good becomes the enemy of the perfect and results in a worse outcome than the good option was. Failing to approve a map on time creates a coin flip opportunity where the maps are drafted by the GOP. The same political party that has waged an all out campaign against voting rights for all American citizens in an effort to protect their outsized influence in the United States and this is even after they attempted to intentionally game the census in their favor.
===We urge Illinois lawmakers to seek relief from the courts and halt current attempts to pass maps that erase thousands of Illinoisans.===
If this were to succeed what would be the cost?
Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, May 24, 21 @ 11:52 am
maps actually go very far to keep the Illinois Black Caucus intact.
I’d be highly surprised if they did not.
Comment by Fav Human Monday, May 24, 21 @ 1:23 pm
The maps may protect the Black Caucus (I don’t know for sure, because I’ve not seen the data that supports their maps.) They certainly don’t protect the majority Black North Lawndale community, or Representative District 9. The North Lawndale community, which historically has been in District 9, has been split. Residents who live south of Cermak are going to the newly created District 23, which will be majority Latino (looking at the geography) Those of us who reside north of Cermak will stay in District 9. For decades, Representative District 9 and Senate District 5 (into which Legislative District 9 is nested) have been drawn to be majority Black, pursuant to civil rights laws. Looking at the map, the district was not drawn to restore the historically Black majority. In addition to losing the Black population on the southwestern end of the district, the northeastern end of the district has been extended to Lincoln Park. We have the map and the data to show that these districts can be drawn to restore historic Black majorities. We have also uncovered data that suggests that two additional Black representative districts and one additional Black senate district may be drawn. From where I sit, the Black vote is diluted by the Legislature’s maps.
Comment by Valerie Leonard Monday, May 24, 21 @ 1:52 pm
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, the CHANGE IL Executive Director is a registered Republican.
Comment by Disappointed Voter Monday, May 24, 21 @ 4:02 pm
==We have also uncovered data that suggests that two additional Black representative districts and one additional Black senate district may be drawn==
To the disadvantage of who? Should there be fewer Latino districts? Which minority counts most? I suspect I know the answer from you.
Comment by Demoralized Monday, May 24, 21 @ 4:30 pm
It also would be good if IDOC could get that incarcerated individual info available for any line redrawing (assuming lawsuit) for the prison gerrymander fix…could make huge difference for some districts in Cook and Chicago, especially for the POC legislators.
Comment by Veil of Ignorance Tuesday, May 25, 21 @ 8:42 am