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Amendment needed to stop gerrymandering

Political gerrymandering needs to be limited in this country. Its premise is that a political party can draw the legislative district map lines in order for that party to easily obtain congressional or state legislative seats. There have been quite a few cases that have dealt with this issue. One example is the pending Supreme Court case of Gil v. Whitford, where Wisconsin's redistricting was viewed as favorable to Republicans.

Gerrymandering like that which took place in Wisconsin is unacceptable, because it gives one political party a huge electoral advantage over the other.

The Brennan Center for Justice notes Wisconsin is typically a close battleground state: state races are usually decided by a few percentage points or more, partly because voters from both parties are spread out evenly rather than clustered together in the state.

In Pennsylvania, a redistricting lawsuit over political gerrymandering resulted in its state supreme court drawing a new district map after it ruled that the previous map violated the state constitution by slanting the districts toward Republicans,

Now, the state's Republicans are planning to challenge the new district map, arguing that it doesn't give them a fair shot electorally, and that it's favorable to the state Democrats.

The Pennsylvania example leads me to think we need an independent commission to redistrict in Illinois. When an independent commission is put in place, it will give a fairer shot to both political parties in future races for elected seats.

Illinois needs an amendment to our state constitution to establish an independent commission to draw district maps, so that each party has a fair shot at picking up seats for the state House and Senate. I hope that this gets implemented.

Hashim Arain

Oak Brook

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