Editorial: Illinois Supreme Court, it's time — finally — to act on gerrymandering

Chicago Tribune

05-03-2025

For better or worse, November 2024 elections were a triumph for Republicans nationwide. And margins for the GOP in deep-blue Illinois were no exception. For the Illinois House, Republicans received a total 45% of votes statewide, a considerably better showing than in 2020, the previous presidential election year, when the GOP got just 39% of the Illinois House vote.
But in terms of seats in Springfield's lower chamber, nothing changed after November.
Literally nothing.
Not a single district went from blue to red or vice versa. Just as they did before the 2024 election, Democrats have a 78-40 supermajority in the House, 66% of the seats. That's despite their winning just 55% of the vote.
This tells any fair-minded person that Illinois has a map problem.
Democrats have drawn the 118 House districts in such a way as to reduce the truly competitive seats to a minimum, leading to more politically extreme representatives from both parties in the state capital and an embarrassing number of uncontested elections.
In November, voters had no choice in 55 of the 118 House races. In 2020, the number of uncontested races was 47. An unacceptable figure in 2020 only got much worse four years later.
House Minority Leader Tony McCombie along with Reps. Ryan Spain, R-Peoria and Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva are championing a lawsuit filed in January that would throw out the gerrymandered map in favor of a fairer one. They've asked the Illinois Supreme Court to declare the map unconstitutional and appoint an independent official to draw a new map.
This is the latest in a string of such attempts over the past two decades, all of which the state's high court declined to consider. But in a meeting with us, McCombie, Spain and Ugaste said there's reason to be optimistic about a different outcome this time.
First, courts in this state and others have ruled in the past that such challenges weren't timely because elections were looming in the near future and judges didn't want to change the rules in the middle of the game.
The Republicans purposefully filed this challenge just after the November election to remove that obstacle.
Secondly, the Democratic-drawn map is so egregious that the GOP challengers have amassed considerable data from university experts to support their case.
We agree with McCombie and her colleagues: The Illinois Supreme Court should accept this case and determine whether, in fact, too many Illinois voters are being unconstitutionally deprived of their electoral franchise.
It's unfortunate it's come to this point. We were hopeful things would change when JB Pritzker said on the campaign trail ahead of his first term in office, 'We should amend the (state) constitution to create an independent commission to draw legislative maps,' and vowed to veto any unfairly drawn map. Unfortunately, when the time came for action, Pritzker lined up with Democrats in the General Assembly.
Mapmaking, like so many other things, was thrown off during COVID, as the 2020 census data used to draw electoral maps was delayed significantly. Instead of waiting, lawmakers rushed to approve new political maps in May 2021, using incomplete population estimates. A federal court later forced a redraw using actual census data in August 2021.
Despite this, the maps remained heavily skewed, triggering multiple lawsuits. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund challenged the maps for failing to create enough majority-Latino districts. Civil rights groups argued they diluted Black voting power, violating the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. Republicans also filed a lawsuit, claiming partisan bias. This board acknowledged that these new maps are anything but fair and nonpartisan.
The argument put forth by McCombie, Ugaste, and Spain focuses on two key points: Compactness and free-and-equal elections.
They point to the Illinois Constitution, which says 'all legislative districts shall be contiguous and compact,' which they describe as meaning districts should follow logical, existing municipal boundaries. Indeed, many of Illinois' electoral districts are far from compact, spanning multiple towns and counties in an array of tortured, irregular shapes.
McCombie, Spain and Ugaste cited another portion of the state Constitution that says, 'All elections shall be free and equal.' In other words, each person's vote should count as much as every other person in the state.
We're interested in hearing the Democrats' response to these points. House Speaker Emanuel 'Chris' Welch did not reply to a request for comment.
Illinois' political maps, and the power they give to one party — currently Democrats — has led to many policies that we believe are well to the left of the political center in this state.
The gerrymandering also explains why Republicans are often excluded from key conversations. We've heard from multiple GOP state lawmakers that they have been iced out of budget talks. In the House, Speaker Welch has frustrated Republicans repeatedly by forming 'working groups' on hot-button issues comprised entirely of Democrats. Recent examples include pensions and property taxes. It's wrong to exclude Republicans from the debate over these issues critical to Illinois' future, particularly when 45% of voters just chose the GOP.
Why else do fair maps matter to regular Illinoisans? They're an antidote to apathy.
Ugaste told us that a common refrain he hears is that 'Nothing is ever going to change in this state.' It's prompted many, he said, to move out of state, and we've certainly heard the same stories. The lack of competitive elections means lawmakers have little incentive to listen to dissenting voices or compromise on major policy decisions.
Fewer competitive elections also hurts turnout. Research shows that having more candidates on the ballot leads to higher voter participation. Gerrymandering reduces electoral competition, entrenches incumbents, and marginalizes whole communities, ultimately eroding public trust in democracy.
Gerrymandering isn't just a Democratic problem — it's a Republican one too. Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio have faced legal challenges over maps that were allegedly drawn to dilute Democratic votes or disproportionately favor Republican candidates. And many years ago, Republicans gerrymandered Illinois' maps as well.
Other states have done something about the problem. Michigan voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2018 that created an independent redistricting commission. Out west, California and Arizona have similar commissions that have drawn districts that better reflect the political diversity of voters.
The Illinois Supreme Court is composed of five Democrats and two Republicans, so the cynics among us will say we shouldn't hold our breath that this time will be different.
But this time really should be different; democracy in Illinois is badly undermined by such egregious gerrymandering.