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League backs change in drawing maps

The League of Women Voters of Cook County is proud to support the Independent Map Amendment that will be on the ballot this November.

This will be the third time that we have worked hard to get this amendment to the voters.

The LWV has always promoted fair elections. Currently we have neither fair nor competitive elections since the current Illinois Constitution allows the General Assembly to draw the district maps after each census. The party in power gets to draw districts that ensure the reelection of all its members,

Over 60 percent of the representatives in Springfield had no opponents last election. Most of those who did had only nominal opposition. This is not democracy.

Mapmakers for both parties have sliced, diced and chopped up suburbs and small towns to fit their political agendas. They have squeezed, squished, cut and pasted neighborhoods in large cities to ensure their favored political outcomes.

When legislators are not accountable to the voters, they do whatever they please or do nothing. They have twice violated their constitutional oath by refusing to set up a full budget two years in a row.

The Illinois Constitution allows the citizens to amend the document through a petition drive and a referendum on the amendment during a general election. The petition drive has been successful. Twice the number of necessary signatures were gathered to put this amendment on the ballot. This bipartisanship does not happen often.

California has had this system in place since the last census. Their assembly now reflects their population and they are solving their state's problems. Arizona's independent redistricting efforts were recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is time for Illinois to embrace real reform. Vote "yes" on the Independent Maps Amendment.

Diane Edmundson

Park Ridge

Karin Hribar

Arlington Heights

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