(Editor's note: This story has been updated).
EAST ST. LOUIS – St. Clair County board members who trusted estimates when they drew districts missed the mark by more than 1,000 in seven districts and more than 400 in 11 others, according to lawyer Paul Evans of O’Fallon. There are 29 board districts.
He compared the estimates to U.S. Census data released last month and found the board put more than twice as many people in Belleville Democrat member Scott Greenwald’s District 10 as they put in Washington Park Democrat member Juan Macintosh’s District 2.
Evans filed a table of comparisons at U.S. district court on Sept. 3, to support a constitutional challenge to a map the board adopted in May.
He represents board member Ed Cockrell and chairwoman Cheryl Mathews of the county Republican central committee.
They sued in August, claiming the board and chairman Mark Kern violated the Constitution by adopting a map before release of the census.
“It is possible to draw county board districts with substantially less deviation under the guidelines imposed by Illinois law,” Evans wrote.
Cockrell was the only county board member who voted against the map.
According to Evans, Illinois statutes require county board districts to be equal in population and as nearly compact in territory as practicable.
“Compact means closely united,” Evans wrote.
He argues that by statute, county boards divide townships and municipalities only when necessary to conform to equal population.
He also argues that a map must not be a product of manipulation of lines for partisan political ends.
The ideal population for each of 29 board districts is 8,876, according to the suit.
Evans claims that even if the estimates proved accurate, population variations among the board’s 29 districts exceeded a constitutional limit.
The estimates varied from 8,599 to 9,475.
That range looks tiny in the light of the census, which found 5,180 persons in Hollingsworth’s District 2 and 11,510 in Baricevic’s District 10.
District Judge David Dugan presides.