Help Draw Chicago’s New Ward Map

Apply to CHANGE Illinois’ independent advisory redistricting commission  

Chicagoans interested in serving on an independent commission to redraw the city’s ward map need to submit an application online by April 9. Supported by CHANGE Illinois and a coalition of civic groups including the League of Women Voters of Chicago, the independent advisory commission will create a map to compete with the one aldermen are expected to draw.

Thirteen people will be selected for the Chicago Ward Advisory Redistricting Commission, which will work to draw a fairer map than the past gerrymandered ones that served politicians’ interests. 

The boundaries of Chicago’s 50 wards must be adjusted after every decennial census to account for population changes. The full census results are expected this fall.

The commission will seek to draw a map “for Chicagoans created by Chicagoans,” said Madeleine Doubek, CHANGE Illinois’s executive director.

Commission members will not have political ties, according to Chaundra Van Dyk, Chicago program manager at CHANGE Illinois. They will reflect the city’s geographic, ethnic, racial, and economic diversity, including people from the “historically marginalized South and West Sides,” she said. Members will each receive a $5,000 stipend after finishing.

Doubek said that the coalition hopes that the independently drawn map will win enough support in the City Council to move forward. If more than one map proposal is supported by at least 10 of the 50 aldermen, voters will choose the winner in a special election in spring 2022. 

As reported in The Daily Line, Doubek said that supporters of the independent commission have “seen and heard from or spoken to” Ald. Brian Hopkins (2), Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25), Ald. Andre Vasquez (40), and Ald. Michele Smith (43) and are “hoping that list grows.”

Hopkins and Vasquez proposed at the January 27 City Council meeting that hearings be held “on reforms for [a] transparent and equitable redistricting process.” 

Hopkins told The Daily Line recently that he still hopes for a hearing on reforming the redistricting process in the council’s Committee on Committees and Rules. He added, however, that he doesn’t have much hope for an independently drawn map unless the City Council gives up its redistricting authority to a separate commission at the outset.

Contacted by The Daily Line, Smith, who is chair of the Committee on Committees and Rules, said that she expects aldermen to control the process because of the “legal structure in place” now.

Just before that City Council meeting at which Hopkins and Valdez introduced their resolution, Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26), chair of the Latino Caucus, held a news conference to oppose an independent commission. As reported by The Daily Line, Maldonado argued that it is a “myth” that “an independent commission would truly represent” the Latino community’s interests. Aldermen know their communities best and “should be the ones in control of creating” ward boundaries, he said.  

The chair of the Black Caucus, Ald. Jason Ervin (28), said he is open to hearings but thinks that the previous process with aldermen in charge of redistricting is “fine” and that aldermen can draw a map that is “fair and represents all interests.” When Mayor Lori Lightfoot told WTTW in 2019 that she favored an independent commission, Ervin immediately said that he wants to maintain 18 majority-Black wards even though the city’s Black population has been decreasing.

Lightfoot has not repeated her call for a commission and now says that the process “can’t be a backroom, closed-door deal” without input from the public. 

Besides LWV Chicago, groups that are supporting creation of a commission include Common Cause Illinois, the Latino Policy Forum, the Metropolitan Planning Council, Rainbow PUSH, the United Nations Association Greater Chicago Chapter, the NAACP West Side Chapter, the Southwest Collective, the Independent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct Organization, the Peace & Education Coalition of Back of the Yards, One Health Englewood, Asian Americans Advancing Justice|Chicago, Increase the Peace, the Gun Violence Prevention Education Center, and the Illinois Council against Handgun Violence. The Chicago Community Trust, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, and private donors will fund its work.