Illinois Republican leaders said Monday that last week’s release of federal census data proves their contention that new state legislative district boundaries drawn by Democrats violate voting rights laws and said they will ask a judge to rule the maps invalid.

       Democrats did not directly dispute the GOP’s analysis of census data that showed discrepancies between population estimates the party used to draw the maps and the census data that was released Thursday. The party said it is reviewing the latest numbers and will make changes to the maps if necessary. Any changes would require another vote by the Democratic-controlled legislature, unless they are the result of a court order.

       Republicans filed a federal lawsuit in June challenging the maps approved by the Democratic-controlled General Assembly and signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in June because they relied on population estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey rather than results from the once-a-decade census count, which were released Thursday.

       Democrats used the estimated data because of the delayed release of the detailed census population count. The party faced a June 30 deadline to have new boundaries enacted or risk a 50-50 chance of turning over control of the mapmaking process to Republicans.

       Because Democrats control the General Assembly as well as the governor’s office, they were able to approve the new boundaries without any Republican input, just as they did a decade ago.

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       The maps drawn after the 2010 census have contributed to a 73-45 Democratic majority in the House and a 41-18 advantage in the Senate.

       The new maps are aimed at keeping Republicans a superminority in the General Assembly, setting up several one-on-one contests where House Republican incumbents would be pitted against each other based on where their homes are located.

       Illinois Senate Republican Leader Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, speaks after a meeting in the governor's office at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield on May 26, 2021. (Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register)

       The GOP said the ACS estimates undercounted the state’s total population by 41,877 people, based on actual census results. Senate Republican leader Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods said the final census numbers showed the estimated data used by Democrats was “wildly inaccurate” and “ignored the voting rights of their own constituents.”

       House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said the new legislative maps “have proven to be unusable and unlawful given the release of the U.S. Census data.” He said the mapmaking process should revert to the June 30 deadline and require a bipartisan commission to redraw maps — a panel that inevitably leads to a coin flip to determine a partisan tiebreaking member.

       Republicans said their analysis shows the Democratic map goes far beyond a 10 percentage point deviation allowed by federal law to comply with one-person, one-vote laws. They said the most populated House district is nearly 15% above the average district population while the least populated House district is nearly 15% below the average. That leaves a deviation of nearly 30%, or three times the maximum, they said.

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       Officials for the House and Senate Democrats said they were reviewing the new census data to see how it compares with their maps.

       In a joint statement, Chicago Democratic Sens. Omar Aquino, chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee, and Elgie Sims, the vice chair, said they remained committed to a “fair map that reflects the broad racial and geographic diversity of Illinois.”

       “As we go through this review process, if it becomes clear that updates need to be made, we will take the appropriate steps to do so,” the senators said in their statement. They called it “a unique census” conducted during a pandemic and unsuccessful efforts by then-President Donald Trump to have noncitizens not being counted.

       The two also noted the Census Bureau’s renewed efforts at privacy protection, in which some specific counts that could reveal identity information have been masked. The policy, called “differential privacy,” may “result in inaccuracies, especially in more ethnically and racially diverse communities,” they said.

       The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund has filed a separate lawsuit challenging the maps, also based on the use of estimated data to draw legislative boundaries.

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