Chicago City Wire

In written testimony submitted to the House Redistricting Committee, CHANGE Illinois Policy Director Ryan Tolley questioned the lack of transparency of the whole procedure.

He emphasized that while there have been a number of hearings trying to address the discussions on how the decennial remapping should be executed, the process seemed to be getting vague.

"This is not how an open and transparent process works," Tolley said. "We long have advocated for an independent, transparent redistricting process. It is important to recap the past three weeks of redistricting hearings because there’s a lot that remains unaddressed. Unfortunately, many of our recommendations and concerns, shared widely by many of those who have testified, remain unanswered. Holding hearings is not enough," he said.

In the same written testimony, he also cited the logistical problems that restricted witnesses from fully expressing their sentiments.

"We have had witnesses reach out to us who never received Zoom access after filing witness slips or who had trouble navigating the process altogether. Other people have raised complaints that they couldn’t testify because they were unable to move around their work schedules as most of the hearings have been held on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. At one hearing, there was a witness calling in from their job and who couldn’t finish testifying because they were worried about their boss seeing them on their phone. This is not how an open and transparent process works."

Echoing Republican sentiments, Tolley also made known his displeasure at the Committee's decision to use the American Community Service (ACS) data to create the new map. He indicated that utilizing the U.S. Census count is comparatively more significant than rushing things for the June 30 deadline.

"There still remains ambiguity over which data lawmakers intend to use to draw maps. Many witnesses have raised concerns and objections to using ACS data and not using 2020 census data. It is telling that barely any witnesses have come forward to talk about the merits of using ACS data rather than 2020 census data. We do not accept the notion that the June 30th deadline is more important than ensuring we are using the most accurate and reliable data to ensure everyone is counted and that has historically been used for redistricting in Illinois."

The state of Oklahoma has expressed its intention to use the American Community Survey (ACS) data.

CHANGE Illinois recommends lawmakers “provide a two-weeks’ notice for all future public hearings and publicize them more broadly than what has been done so far.”

The organization also suggests that the committee should prepare a process map for how the process is going to progress after the current public hearings scheduled end.