Chicago City Wire

Griselda Vega Samuel doesn’t see how the latest map redistricting project ever had the chance to bring about the fairness and equity Democrats insist they want to see.

"Know that the decennial census data is the only acceptable standard for redistricting,” Vega Samuel, Midwest Regional Counsel for the Mexican Legal Defense and Education Fund, said during a recent hearing on the subject of redistricting. "Any map based on an American Community Survey estimate would very likely cause egression in the ability of a community to elect candidates of their choice.”

Samuel Vega isn’t the only minority activist concerned about what they see as faulty redistricting maps could mean for their communities.

"Every voice is important," Illinois State Conference NAACP President Teresa Haley said at a recent Redistricting Committee public hearing. "The NAACP is opposed to so many things, such as packing and stacking and cracking, and we've seen it over and over again."

Packing, stacking and cracking are all terms that refer to ways to dilute the voting impact of minority populations for political gain.

Republican lawmakers are demanding that Gov. J.B. Pritzker reject partisan-drawn legislative maps as he vowed to do when he was running for governor.

Haley said the current process amounts to gerrymandering in minority communities and the practice needs to stop.

While the task of drawing the once-every-decade maps typically falls to the party in charge if the task isn't complete by an end-of-June deadline, the responsibility is handed to an independent remapping commission that consists of four Republicans and four Democrats.