Credit Derek Cantù/ NPR Illinois
The Illinois General Assembly this week approved a measure making multiple changes to election procedures, including pushing back the 2022 primary election from its usual mid-March date to the end of June.
COVID-19 delayed the release of official 2020 U.S. Census data to states, but Democrats who control the legislative process in Illinois trudged forward anyway on their decennial redrawing of legislative district boundary lines to avoid giving Republicans a 50/50 chance at controlling the maps if they weren’t approved by Gov. JB Pritzker by June 30,
Democrats also used non-Census data to draw a new map for the Illinois Supreme Court’s five districts for the first time in 60 years, as well as the Cook County Board of Review. But they are waiting to draw new congressional districts, and counties don’t have a hard and fast deadline to redistrict boundaries for seats on county boards.
As the Census Bureau prepares to release data from the 2020 Census for redistricting this summer, a controversy is brewing over a new way it plans to protect details of responders' identities.