All five local Wards will be changed in redistricting

Chicago City Council has until December to complete the redistricting process which is required based on the population changes between the 2000 and 2010 census.

Alderman Richard Mell, 33rd Ward, chairs the Committee on Rules and Ethics which leads the redistricting process. Their task is to:

• Make Districts equal in size
• Provide that protected minorities are not gerrymandered to prevent them from electing members of their own race
• Have Districts that are contiguous
• Have compact Districts

The goal for this City Council is to have all aldermanic wards contain 53,912 voters. Looking at the five Wards that Our Urban Times touches, you will see that all five aldermen have to change their numbers.Of the five, only one - 27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett, has been through the process before.

Proco "Joe" Moreno in the 1st Ward has to reduce his total number of voters, but to remain a Latino ward, he has to loose whites and gain Latinos. Roberto Maldonado in the 26th needs to gain voters but his Hispanic looks correct.

Burnett in the 27th has to add to his voter count by about 2,700 and if he is to be a black ward, he will need to increase the number of black voters. Rey Colon, 35th Ward, needs to increase his total numbers by only about 2,500 votes and he has a majority of Hispanic voters. Scott Waguespack in the 32nd Ward needs to reduce just under 10,000 voters. His ethnic count is not an issue.

Below are the voter counts by Ward and ethnicity from the 2000 and 2010 census numbers: