A new map of legislative boundaries in Illinois drawn up by legislators violates the rights of Latino voters, according to a Latino legal rights group.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a non-profit that works to protect the legal rights of Latinos, says the plan denies Latino voters from Chicago’s South Side their rightful chance of electing a Latino to represent them by diluting their voting power into fragmented districts.
The resulting districts would be unlawful for Latinos, who grew by 500,000 in the state according to the 2010 US Census, says MALDEF.
“We believe HB3760 does not create a sufficient number of districts for Latino electoral opportunity to comply with the Voting Rights Act,” said Nina Perales, the group’s vice president for litigation.
The House is expected to take up the plan soon and MALDEF will also present its own plan on Tuesday.
The group did not signal whether it would sue the state if Democrats do not make changes to the plan, but in the past MALDEF has been known to challenge unlawful redistricting plans in court.
[…] The group did not signal whether it would sue the state if Democrats do not make changes to the plan, but in the past MALDEF has been known to challenge unlawful redistricting plans in court. […]