“There are battle lines being drawn. Nobody is right if everybody is wrong.”
Steven Stills’, prophetic lyrics, aptly describe the overtly partisan decennial map making process in both Springfield and McHenry County.
The majority Democrats in Springfield carved up state legislative districts to protect incumbents and to punish Republican legislators. McHenry County Board Republicans were just as brazen as their stated interest was to ensure that Republicans be “reelected in a District that they currently serve.”
Both the Springfield Democrats and McHenry County Republicans are wrong. These Districts don’t belong to them.
They belong to the citizens who are being disenfranchised by dividing communities of interest for partisan purposes. These self-serving politicians have gerrymandered districts to take away voter control and influence, which is the anthesis of democracy.
[ Proposed McHenry County Board map draws partisan critiques, questions over timeline ]
It is too late to rectify the partisan maps out of Springfield, but in McHenry County, the County Board doesn’t have to vote until Dec. 31 to establish the new boundaries.
The primary has been moved back three months in order to give counties time to get their maps done right. The partisan gerrymandering of the County Board should be discarded, and a new map should be drawn by a nonpartisan, third-party outsider, such as the Better Government Association.
In no circumstances should current Board Members home addresses be taken into consideration. Instead, towns and villages should be kept together. Rural area representation should not be diminished, and cities should not be carved up in order to protect incumbent politicians.
The independent organization should also establish necessary precinct designations that are legally required to be updated, but inexplicably have not been.
McHenry County must lead by example and help preserve our democracy that has been under attack. We proved that we can cut property taxes at the county level while also giving rebates to homeowners.
It’s time to lead again. Our citizens deserve better than a blatantly partisan elected class only looking out for their interests and not ours.
The argument that the Democrats in Springfield politically drew their maps does not justify the Republicans in McHenry County doing the same and disenfranchising the voters of McHenry County. Two wrongs do not make a right.
There is ample time and opportunity to get this right. Our democracy demands it. Throw out these terribly gerrymandered maps and bring in a disinterested, nonpartisan third party to draw County Board districts that are in the citizens’ interest and not that of the County Board members.
Jack Franks, a Democrat, is the former McHenry County Board chairman, serving in that role from 2016 to 2020. He also represented the area as a state legislator in Springfield from 1999 to 2017.