The Illinois House Redistricting committee will hold a public hearing Monday afternoon at the state Capitol.

The hearing is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. in Room 114. Any Illinois resident is allowed to testify about the redistricting process, what lawmakers should consider when drawing the maps, and even submit their own maps for the public record.

Testimony can be oral or written. To do either, people must fill out witness slips at least 24 hours in advance of the hearing. Those who wish to provide oral testimony will be contacted by a House staff member to coordinate testimony. More information can be found at ilhousedems.com/redistricting/ or by emailing redistrictingcommittee@hds.ilga.gov.

While the Capitol building has not normally been open to the public for safety reasons, those who wish to testify in-person and go through the process of filing out a witness slip will be allowed into the building to testify in front of lawmakers.

“Obviously here in Sangamon County and the Springfield area, we’ve seen lines change dramatically over the years,” said state Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield. “I think Springfield underscores a lot of the frustrations people have about legislative boundaries (not) respecting communities.”

While public hearings are a staple of the redistricting process, few people have testified. Each hearing typically lasts about an hour with testimony from a handful of individuals, who typically are local government representatives or from advocacy organizations. Butler said he has not yet seen any maps submitted by the public.

State Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, said people can testify at any hearing, regardless of where they live in the state.

Among the themes from the public testimony have included groups advocating for keeping minority communities together, a fair map-making process, and calling on lawmakers to use the best available data, with some saying that means waiting until the end of the summer when Census data is expected to be released.