Constitutional Change on How Legislative Districts Are Drawn May Make November Ballot

A coalition of groups seeking to reform the way Illinois establishes legislative district maps believes another key milestone has been reached. The Independent Maps coalition said the Illinois State Board of Elections has indicated thousands of petitions likely contain more than the minimum number of voter signatures needed to place a proposed constitutional amendment on statewide ballots in November.

“The citizens of Illinois have signaled very clearly with their signatures that they want legislative redistricting reform on the November ballot,” said Dennis FitzSimons, chair of the Independent Maps coalition.

The group says the state elections board review indicated that close to 73 percent of the nearly 600,000 signatures collected by groups such as county Farm Bureaus appear to be genuine. The coalition says the board found the sample of signatures reviewed match the signature of registered voters living at at the address printed on the petitions.

Hundreds of thousands of petitions asking the state to allow voters to decide if they want a new way Illinois legislative maps are drawn passed a review by the Illinois Board of Elections.

"I think this process most importantly puts the power if you will of establishing these new districts in the hands of the voters," said David Erickson, vice president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, an Independent Maps board member, and farmer from Altona.

A group called the People’s Map filed a lawsuit soon after the reform group submitted the petitions in an effort to try to keep the state constitutional amendment off the November ballot. It believes the effort is unconstitutional.

“Now that the petition review process is complete, we can focus on fighting the lawsuit by entrenched political interests looking to deny citizens the chance to change the system,” said FitzSimons, a former CEO of the Tribune Company and current chairman of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. “We will aggressively defend the constitutionality and fairness of the Independent Map Amendment, and we are determined to give voters that choice in November.”

The Independent Maps coalition has credited county Farm Bureaus and the League of Women Voters for collecting the most signatures on the verified petitions.