News Clips

Jay Young, executive director of Common Cause Illinois, said the maps the Legislature will vote on Tuesday “will not be crafted of public input, but of pure politics.”

In a statement, the executive director Jay Young said, “Since the beginning, we’ve pleaded with lawmakers to keep the redistricting process open, transparent, and accessible to no avail. This latest, last-minute hearing provides almost no notice to the public. The new maps have been released less than a day before lawmakers vote on them. It’s shameful, and our organization refuses to add any legitimacy to such an undemocratic process.”

“We are once again witnessing a process that’s unlikely to see much in terms of true community engagement,” Jay Young, executive director of Common Cause Illinois, skeptically told lawmakers at a public hearing last week.

All of the major do-gooder groups — the Better Government Association, Reform for Illinois, CHANGE Illinois and Common Cause — panned the legislation as inadequate.

“I’ve been trying to stress throughout this process that Illinois should be a beacon in this process. We’re a national leader in voting rights,” said Jay Young of Common Cause Illinois.

As Illinois prepares for the 2020 census count, leaders of the state census office said they're focusing on getting correct information out to communities, in particular clearing up confusion about job qualifications for census enumerators, the use of online forms and the timeline for the decennial count.