Courtesy CHANGE Illinois)

The deadline for a city ward map is Wednesday. CHANGE Illinois believes that map should be independently made by community members who reflect the city’s population and not by alderpeople. 

A proposed Chicago Ward Map from the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus.

Negotiations over a new ward map that will shape Chicago politics for the next decade remained deadlocked Tuesday, with no sign of a possible compromise less than a day before the deadline set by state law.

A proposed Chicago Ward Map from the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus.

If 41 alderpeople do not agree on a map, the final decision could be made by voters for the first time in 30 years via a referendum.

A proposed Chicago Ward Map from the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus.

The leaders of the Chicago City Council’s Black and Latino caucuses sparred Thursday as a compromise over the boundaries of the ward map that will shape Chicago politics for the next decade remained elusive.

A new Chicago ward map will take effect in time for the 2023 municipal elections — assuming it is not blocked by a judge. (WTTW News via Google Maps)

The leaders of the Chicago City Council’s Black and Latino caucuses said Tuesday that they could endorse a new Chicago ward map with 18 wards with a majority of Black voters and 15 wards with a majority of Latino voters.

(WTTW News)

Some community leaders want to see Chinatown and the surrounding area included in a single ward as part of the city council’s once-a-decade remap process. Advocates are also calling for Asian American communities in Albany Park, West Ridge, and Uptown to stay together in their respective wards to ensure their voices are heard. 

People listen to speakers during the Redistricting Reform Rally at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, Aug. 11, 2021. (Kelly Wilkinson / The Indianapolis Star via AP, File)

While both parties have gerrymandered, these days Republicans have more opportunities. The GOP controls the line-drawing process in states representing 187 House seats compared with 75 for Democrats. The rest of the states use either independent commissions, have split government control or only one congressional seat.

A new Chicago ward map will take effect in time for the 2023 municipal elections — assuming it is not blocked by a judge. (WTTW News via Google Maps)

The online tool will allow Chicagoans to use map-drawing software similar to the kind that members of the Chicago City Council have been using since the end of July — but Chicagoans have less than three weeks to send in their proposal.

A proposed Chicago Ward Map from the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus. [Provided]

Members of the Latino and Black Caucuses are still split on how to draw the new city ward map. The Latino Caucus unveiled a map that reduces the number of wards with a majority of Black voters, intended to reflect a growing Latino population in the city.

(WTTW News)

The state’s political landscape is shuffling with the new congressional map and the political fallout of the Chicago Park District sex abuse scandal. Our Spotlight Politics team on that and more. 

(WTTW News)

Their final product, which still needs Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signoff, is designed to send 14 Democrats and three Republicans to Congress from Illinois. If the strategy works, Democrats will gain a seat from Illinois while the GOP will lose two.

The Illinois legislature is in the midst of its last scheduled session of the year. (WTTW News)

Late Wednesday, the Illinois House of Representatives approved a measure that would repeal a law requiring parents and guardians be notified before their minor child can have an abortion. The measure now heads to Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

A proposed Chicago Ward Map from the Chicago City Council's Latino Caucus. [Provided]

The Chicago City Council’s Latino Caucus on Friday unveiled a map that would reduce the number of wards with a majority of Black voters by two to 16 wards and add two wards where a majority of voters are Latino.

(PartTime Portraits / Unsplash)

Despite holding all the power, Democratic state lawmakers are getting pushback from both sides of the aisle for the newly drawn congressional map which shrinks the number Republican House members from five to three.

(PartTime Portraits / Unsplash)

Illinois lawmakers have turned their attention toward their task of drawing new Congressional district boundaries, but critics aren’t ready to give up on the previous mapmaking task they say the General Assembly fumbled.

A new Chicago ward map will take effect in time for the 2023 municipal elections — assuming it is not blocked by a judge. (WTTW News via Google Maps)

The final map crafted by the Chicago Ward Advisory Redistricting Commission would increase the number of wards where Latinos make up a majority of residents by one to 14, while reducing the number of wards with a majority of Black voters by three to 15 wards.