State Senator Dale Fowler is pushing a plan to allow voters to weigh in on a non-partisan system for drawing legislative maps.
The Harrisburg republican says Senate Joint Resolution - Constitutional Amendment 4 would allow a vote on establishing an independent redistricting commission. Fowler says it will increase transparency and provide for hearings to gather public input.
"This would take what we call the backdoor process of drawing the maps out of the equation. So, it would give the voters an opportunity to choose us rather than the political parties choose the voters. So, it's a much more fair, bi-partisan initiative."
He says there appears to be quite a groundswell of support for the plan.
"Governor Pritzker is on board with us. That's what I understand. What we're doing is we're urging our constituents to go to our websites, which in my case would be senatorfowler.com, and to sign a petition to get fairer maps to Illinois before the voters."
Right now, legislative leaders of the party in power draw the maps, often to improve that party's chances of winning as many seats as possible.
If passed, Fowler says the question of fair maps would appear on the ballot for the 2020 statewide election.
Fowler encourages constituents to visit his website to sign the fair maps petition.
