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Counties facing map challenges give up on originals, as cases proceed in federal court

MADISON - ST. CLAIR RECORD

Friday, November 22, 2024

Counties facing map challenges give up on originals, as cases proceed in federal court

Lawsuits
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Dugan

EAST ST. LOUIS – Two county boards that attorney Paul Evans of O’Fallon sued in federal court for drawing district maps before the U.S. census was released have abandoned those maps. 

St. Clair County board chairman Mark Kern presented a replacement at a special meeting in Belleville on Nov. 8, and said the board would vote on it Nov. 16. 

On Nov. 9, Jackson County board members pleaded that they don’t need to defend their map because they don’t have to replace it until Nov. 17. 

District Judge David Dugan presides over both cases. 

Conversion from census estimates to official results wouldn’t necessarily end the litigation, because Evans alleges other constitutional violations in both lawsuits. 

The complaints he filed in August claim that even if estimates proved reliable, population variations among districts exceeded the constitutional limit. 

He claims the boards failed to draw reasonably compact districts, and that they improperly crossed township lines. 

The census bureau released results five days after Evans sued. 

At Kern’s hearing on Nov. 8, a citizen asked him why it took so long after release of the census to draw a map. 

Kern said, “We utilized the time to do it.” 

At district court, Kern stood by the map he intended to withdraw. 

His lawyer Garrett Hoerner moved to dismiss the complaint on Sept. 3, claiming Kern used census bureau surveys as a reasonable method. 

Evans applied census data to Kern’s map and amended the complaint on Sept. 9, to report his results. 

He called the estimates “vastly different from reality,” with population variations from 5,180 to 11,510. 

Hoerner moved to dismiss the amended complaint on Sept. 23, stating again that using surveys was reasonable. 

At a hearing on Oct. 27, Dugan dismissed portions of the complaint and gave Evans a week to amend it. 

Evans amended it on Nov. 3, but he wasted his time because Kern announced the completion of a replacement on Nov. 5. 

Evans reported Kern’s action to Dugan and moved to amend again. 

On Nov. 8, Dugan wrote that a motion for leave to amend must be accompanied by a proposed complaint, “which plaintiffs explain is not available yet.” 

He wrote that he’d consider an amendment after a proposal is before him. 

In the Jackson County case, State’s Attorney Joseph Cervantez started backing away from the estimates in September. 

In a motion to dismiss, he asserted a counterclaim for judgment that plaintiffs couldn’t sue until after Nov. 17.  

He claimed any map passed before then would be passed in accordance with law. 

Evans moved to expedite the proceedings, and Dugan granted it on Oct. 26. 

He asked for dispositive motions by Nov. 9, and responses by Nov. 16. 

Evans moved for summary judgment on Nov. 8, stating one district’s population was 9.4 percent above the ideal and one was 19.5 percent below. 

He claims board members must have known a map using survey estimates would be unconstitutional but they drew it anyway.  

Cervantez moved to dismiss on Nov. 9, stating plaintiffs sought a remedy for a hypothesized injury. 

“Plaintiffs impermissibly speculate as to maps that may or may not be final, and injuries that may or may not occur,” Cervantez wrote. 

In the St. Clair County case, Evans represents board member Ed Cockrell and county Republican chair Cheryl Mathews. 

In the Jackson County case, he represents six individuals and the county Republican central committee. 

  

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