A petition full of signatures is saying that hundreds of thousands of people would like to take Illinois’ redistricting powers away from lawmakers and put the power in the hands of an independent commission.
On Thursday, May 1, the group “Yes! For Independent Maps” turned in a petition to Springfield with 532,000 signatures to the state. Their goal is to keep lawmakers from gerrymandering district maps to make it easier to get reelected.
“This is a measure that will add independence, transparency and fairness to a broken backroom system, and its day has come,” said Petition Campaign Manager, Michael Kolenc. “And now the voters across the state will have the chance to have their say on this measure in November.”
Opponents of the measure have made motions to stop it. On Tuesday, April 29 a Democratic Party attorney argued that the measure is outside of the constitutional limits of a voter initiative amendment.