Kane County gets Latino point of view on redistricting

Giving the 35 percent of Kane County residents who are Hispanic a fair chance at electing candidates of their choice took attention away from partisan politics on the county board Monday night.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund weighed in on the sample maps the county’s redistricting task force has developed. No direct representative from the group was present, but the organization’s own version of an appropriate map spoke to its parameters for legally defensible Hispanic-majority county board districts.

“They were looking at districts with at least 65 percent Hispanic population,” said task force member Jesse Vazquez. “If it’s less than that, they’ll probably challenge (it in court) is what they’re saying. But, to me, 65 percent doesn’t guarantee that we’re going to have a Latino in that district.”

Vazquez argued Hispanic residents who are eligible to vote are the main factor in his mind for creating Hispanic districts. Other board members said they thought keeping municipalities and townships together, as well as respecting other geographic boundaries, should be a major factor regardless of ethnicity.

The Mexican-American group’s map tinkers with districts in both Aurora and Elgin in attempting to create seats on the county that would almost surely reflect a Hispanic voting preference. But county board members said they thought the parameters created heavily gerrymandered seats that tear apart some neighborhoods.

And, just using the 65 percent guideline would probably result in losing some current Hispanic seats where the Hispanic population isn’t quite 65 percent for the sake of creating fewer, lock-solid Hispanic seats.

Instead of accepting the group’s changes, the task force decided to try to move a voting precinct here or there to beef up the Hispanic population in some districts. The idea is to do that without making major changes that push board members out of their current districts.

The next map will also see a melding of political wills. Democrats will get their way in the south portion of the county. Republicans will get their way in the north and central parts of the county. That means board members Deb Allan and Jeanette Mihalec would still be the only two current board members to face each other in the next set of elections. Both are Democrats.

Task force Chairman Cathy Hurlbut said she believes the Mexican-American group will work with the county on a map as long as the logic behind it shows a clear attempt to create reasonable Hispanic-majority seats.

“We need to give it our best shot,” Hurlbut said. “We’re ahead of the curve in asking for their opinion at this stage. I think what they’re looking for from us is to just provide equity.”

The task force won’t meet again until they’ve come up with a map where that equity is achieved, Hurlbut said.

In the meantime, the full county board meets Tuesday. The full board is expected to take a binding vote to reduce the size of the board by two seats, to 24 districts, for the first time.