Roll Call: As some states rush to redistrict, gerrymandering fight moves to back burner

Illinois redistricting advocates are having a hard time convincing state lawmakers to be patient.

Members of the Democratic-controlled General Assembly have been waiting for 2020 census data to draw new legislative maps. Those numbers could be delayed until the fall, but state legislators face a June 30 deadline to redraw their electoral maps — or relinquish line-drawing control to a bipartisan commission.

Illinois and a handful of other states, including Oregon, Oklahoma and Idaho, are looking to jump the gun amid the wait for census data, putting efforts to change the way legislative maps get redrawn on the back foot and raising concerns about transparency. …

Illinois legislators have said they intend to use alternative figures, likely combining 2010 decennial census data with American Community Survey data from 2019, to draw their maps.

The state could become “the canary in the coal mine” when it comes to using nondecennial census data that way, said Jay Young, the executive director of Common Cause Illinois.

Young and others say that route is rife with potential legal challenges. It also undercuts the investment the state made financially and in outreach to underserved communities to get a good census count. …

Change Illinois, Common Cause and other groups nationwide have pushed legislatures to engage the public in the redistricting process.