Community Corner
9 Ways the State Makes Citizen-Backed Improvement Difficult
The citizen-backed redistricting reform effort, though flawed, ran into some very fishy practices by the state of Illinois.
Yes, there were problems with the signatures gathered by Yes! for Independent Maps in their citizen-driven redistricting reform effort.
But that can't cover-up the fishiness that exists in the Illinois elections code and in the election board procedures that Yes! for Independent Maps ran into.
Reboot Illinois' Madeleine Doubek spoke with one of the attorneys representing Yes! for Independent Maps about the difficulties the group ran into and the many obstacles the state has created for citizen-backed initiatives.
Nine different obstacles to be exact.
There was another citizen-backed movement that got the OK from the Board of Elections but was shot down in a Cook County lawsuit: the push for legislative terms limits, backed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner. The backers of term limits now are appealing the judge’s decision.
While the fight for the term limits amendment is being fought, Rauner is still going in his campaign against Gov. Pat Quinn, largely buoyed by donations from...himself? Yep, Rauner is Rauner's number one donor. Who's the top donor for Quinn? We've got the top 10 donors for both gubernatorial candidates.
This article appears on all Patch Chicago sites. The views expressed in this post are those of Reboot Illinois and do not reflect those of Patch or its editors.
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