It shouldn’t be this difficult to say no.

As I write this, the State Board of Elections Office has been open for a few hours, beginning to process candidate nomination petitions for the 2026 statewide primary cycle. By the time you read this, General Assembly members will have completed another fall veto session day and several prominent Illinois Democrats will have met with U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries , the New York Democrat and House minority leader who wants as many Democratic-controlled states as possible to redraw Congressional maps.

That the conversation about midstream reconfiguration of already gerrymandered districts is even a possibility must be understood in the larger context of national politics, but it’s important to note Illinois officials could’ve definitively ended any s

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