Chambana Sun

Chris Mooney, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, believes that the upcoming legislative redistricting “is the most important bill of the decade,” and he sees trouble ahead.

Illinois state legislators take on the job every decade. The end of June is traditionally the deadline. If Springfield cannot reach an agreement, an eight-member redistricting commission is appointed by legislative leaders. That commission then has until Aug. 10 to file a new map with the Illinois Secretary of State.

There is a problem though: The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that it will not report data until September 30, which means that there could be problems with the newly drawn legislative district maps.

"The Illinois Supreme Court will play a crucial role in this," said Mooney, former director of the U of I's Institute for Government and Public Affairs. He notes that maps created without certified data could be challenged in court.

Advocates for change in government are floating the idea of a  virtual redistricting commission that would allow for input from the public.

Institute for Principled Leadership executive director Brad McMillan insists that would be a welcomed change.

“The redistricting process in Illinois has always been done behind closed doors and there has never been an opportunity for this kind of openness, so it would definitely be an improvement," said McMillan, who also serves as co-chair of CHANGE Illinois, a nonprofit advocacy coalition founded more than a decade ago to aid in transforming the mapping process.