Posted: Aug. 28, 2016 12:40 am

A redistricting reform effort in Illinois has been rejected by the Illinois Supreme Court and will not be on the ballot Nov. 8.

When the 4-3 decision was announced Thursday, it was criticized by many as a party-line vote.

"It is an affront to our democracy that the courts struck down yet another citizen-led referendum drive to fix the system that only benefits the people in power," Gov. Bruce Rauner said.

Wording in the redistricting proposal also amounted to an unforced error that led to it being ruled unconstitutional.

Cutting through all of the legalese, the Independent Maps group wanted to change the Illinois Constitution's procedures for how political districts are drawn. If approved by voters, the initiative would have set up a new system so lawmakers can't draw boundary lines for political advantage.

However, the ballot initiative wanted the Illinois auditor general to play a part in the new redistricting system. Since the powers and duties of the auditor general are spelled out in a different part of the Illinois Constitution, the initiative was rejected.

According to strict constitutional procedures, it would have taken two initiatives -- one to change the auditor general's duties and one to change redistricting procedures -- to accomplish what Independent Maps proposed.

A longtime legal representative and ally of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan filed the court challenge, although Democrats continue to say they had no hand in the lawsuit.

Dennis FitzSimmons, chairman of Independent Maps, said more than 563,000 Illinois voters signed petitions to put the issue on the ballot.

He said the high court's decision effectively means that "voters cannot propose sensible changes" to how legislative boundaries are drawn.

Not all bad news

On the bright side, the courts seem to indicate that a citizen petition can be mounted to change how legislative districts are drawn. This campaign can live to fight another day. And with strong support from both Republicans and Democrats, it seems likely there will be no shortage of petition signers -- or voters ready to approve a ballot issue.

Courts did rule, however, that a term limit proposal cannot be mounted by citizen petition. It will take action by the Legislature to let voters decide whether they want term limits. It seems highly unlikely the Legislature will ever take that vote.

There has been one successful citizen petition drive since the 1970 constitutional convention. Pat Quinn led the Cutback Amendment campaign of 1980 that eliminated 59 House seats.

Before passage of the amendment, each Illinois House District had three representatives. There was cumulative voting that allowed voters to vote three times for a single candidate or spread their votes between two or three candidates.

The main argument Quinn made was that the 177-member House was too large and unwieldy, and cutting the number of members would save costs.

Many have argued that the three-member districts helped provide views from both minority parties or racial minorities.