14 minutes ago, Foraker said:

You've been very helpful.  But not very convincing. 

 

 

You can choose to believe what you want. That does not change the fact that in 2009-10, it was the case that the Dems did not want to negotiate with the Republicans on redistricting because they were counting on growing their majority to gerrymander things to their advantage. There were a number of articles written on but they were very old. I actually posted a link to one on this site many years back but it is no longer active or it appears to have been scrubbed during a clean out a number of years back. Jason Williams had written on the matter back when he wrote on politics.  

 

I completely understand that the articles may have been scrubbed, but there are articles out there. I am not going to waste 30-40 minutes to try and find them to prove a trivial point in the matter but if it is important to you, you are welcome to search for them. 

34 minutes ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

You can choose to believe what you want.

Ditto. 

But I don't understand why you aren't willing to take time to help me find any articles on the matter, but you keep finding the time to respond to me saying I'm not sure I believe you.   I wonder what that says....

17 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

The other thing that is often overlooked by many of the partisans on this board is that back in 2009/2010 the Dems had the governor mansion, SOS, atty general, treasurer (pretty much every office but auditor), they also had one of the branches in the statehouse. The GOP came to them at the time to propose a fair redistricting plan so that it would offer the minority party a say in the redistricting process in 2010. The Dems at that time told the GOP to go screw themselves because they were reading the tea leaves that pointed to a Strickland re-election and gains at the statehouse. THey were betting on controlling the whole redistricting process and gerrymandering in their favor. Well, instead they got curb stomped in 2010 and the GOP was able to control the process. While normally, I would agree that the GOP should have shown mercy, in this case, the Dems got to reap what they sowed and they absolutely deserved what they got in 2010. 

 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2009/03/30/husted-proposes-redistricting-reform/23645804007/

The elephant in the room when it comes to Ohio redistricting is race:   

 

The delegation currently has 17 members.   3 are black.  So the delegation is 17% black.  The state is about 14% black, so that matches up.

 

The Democratic delegation is 50% black.   Double that 14%, and it's 28%.   It's not quite there, so let's say 25% of the Democratic electorate is black

 

This is not a result of the Voting Rights Act, but a deal W. O. Walker brokered between the Stokes brothers and the state GOP.  Nevertheless, attempting to significantly redistribute Brown or Beatty's district would instantly result in a federal lawsuit.

 

Each of them got over 70% of the vote in their district.

 

This is the problem with a simple majority Constitutional amendment process.   People will vote for something that sounds good without the slightest clue how complex it is.

 

for comparison, this is how alabama and louisiana do redistricting chicanery these days:

 

 

 

 

JURISPRUDENCE

Alabama Republicans Are Daring the Supreme Court to Uphold Its Own Voting Rights Ruling

 

BY MARK JOSEPH STERN

JULY 17, 2023

 

Alabama Republicans took a major step toward openly defying the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, advancing a new congressional map that fails to comply with the court’s landmark Voting Rights Act decision in June. In Allen v. Milligan, Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the state to draw an additional congressional district that gives Black voters a meaningful opportunity to elect the representative of their choice; instead, Republican legislators have drawn a white-majority district that Donald Trump would have handily carried in 2020. Lawmakers passed this map out of committee on a party-line vote, and the GOP-controlled Legislature appears likely to adopt it by Friday.

 

There is no real chance that the district court which struck down Alabama’s first map will uphold this one. It will be dead on arrival—as Republican legislators must realize. It seems, then, that these lawmakers hope the Supreme Court will decline to enforce a ruling that is barely a month old. Like Louisiana Republicans, who are currently pursuing a similar tactic over a similar racial gerrymander, Alabama legislators think the Supreme Court may walk back its newfound commitment to the Voting Rights Act. More than half a century after the Civil Rights Movement, these Southern states are maintaining their resistance to multiracial democracy and looking to the Supreme Court to play along.

 

 

more:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/07/alabama-republicans-supreme-court-voting-rights-dare.html

Step one of the Independent Redistricting Commission is complete - petitioners have submitted 1000 signatures have been submitted. This effort is intended to end gerrymandering for good in Ohio and, unlike the last effort, completely removes politicians from the redistricting process. The Attorney General has 10 days to approve the petition language. Petitioners are targeting to get this on the ballot next November (2024). The  Commission would be responsible for both State level and Federal level redistricting. Here's the email I received from organizers (with links re-inserted):

***********

Hello Fair Districts!

We are excited to finally bring you some news that we have all been waiting for for a very long time: A group called Citizens Not Politicians has filed the first 1,000 signatures to put an independent redistricting commission on the ballot in November 2024.  You can read more about this at the campaign website, HERE.

 

It’s no secret that we have been waiting for the right time to begin a campaign to take mapmaking completely out of the hands of elected officials. We saw self-serving politicians who used every possible angle to block the creation of fair maps. That’s why Fair Districts has been saying for months that we need to remove politicians altogether, and the new proposal does just that.  

 

First, we had to wait to see how the US Supreme Court would rule in the North Carolina redistricting case Moore v. Harper. Fortunately, the Court pushed back on the independent state legislature theory.

 

Then we had to fight off the attack on direct democracy. And we won! We beat Issue 1 of the August Special Election by 14 points. Together we preserved our access to the ballot—and we intend to use it!

 

Now the time is right and the work has begun. We want you to know that the policy put forward by Citizens Not Politicians is top notch, and Fair Districts has been part of the process since the beginning. Redistricting experts and fair maps advocates took our lessons learned from the corrupt process we endured in 2021 and 2022, and over months of work came up with a plan to finally deliver fair and unbiased districts for the people of Ohio. (Read the full text here).  

 

The proposed amendment will:

• Create the 15-member Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission made up of Democratic, Republican, and independent citizens who broadly represent the different geographic areas and demographics of the state.
• Ban current or former politicians, political party officials, lobbyists, and large political donors from sitting on the Commission.
• Require fair and impartial districts by making it unconstitutional to draw voting districts that discriminate against or favor any political party or individual politician.
• Require the commission to operate under an open and independent process.

The Independent Commission that the new proposal would create is very similar to commissions in Michigan and Colorado which took mapmaking out of the hands of elected officials. These independent citizens redistricting commissions led to much fairer districts and fairer elections. That is what we all want for Ohio.

 

Submitting 1,000 signatures is just the first step. Now, the Attorney General has 10 days to approve the petition language. If the language isn’t approved, then we’ll need to collect another 1000 signatures.

 

Click here for information about the process for citizen initiatives. We expect to face many hurdles, but we are determined and know, with your help, we will prevail.

 

The next Fair Districts All Volunteer Huddle is on September 13 at 6 pm. This will be a great time to learn more about the policy and process, and the different ways you will be able to help with this important effort. REGISTER for the September Huddle HERE. Please feel free to invite others to participate.

 

We also want you to know that we will soon be announcing trainings for petition circulation, as well as deep dives on the new proposed policy. There’s a lot coming in the next couple of months so stay tuned! Fair Districts volunteers will be central to the success of this effort so that we can finally kick the politicians to the curb and get the Fair Maps our democracy needs and deserves.

 

Thank you for all you do,

Mia Lewis, Common Cause Ohio for Fair Districts

The above post says the proposal draws a lot of inspiration from Michigan's procedure. Here's an approachable explanation of how it works in Michigan. 

 

https://eu.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2021/03/28/how-michigans-redistricting-process-work-and-how-get-involved/4700107001/

 

Overall looks pretty good, I have many minor quibbles, but I can't come up with a reasonable argument of how it could be considered worse than the current system, so I'd vote for it.

 

My biggest concern with any kind of system like this, is how it could be captured by malign interests (think organized crime, but it needn't be quite so explicitly criminal), so I think the selection process is paramount. It looks like a pretty good setup, and one that would be hard to institutionally capture, but that is far and away my biggest concern, and I hope appropriate thought has been given to that concern.

14 hours ago, Boomerang_Brian said:

The Attorney General has 10 days to approve the petition language.

 

I'm curious how much leeway he has to push back on the language. Is there some crazy instance where he has the ability to spike it because he doesn't agree with it?

3 hours ago, Ethan said:

The above post says the proposal draws a lot of inspiration from Michigan's procedure. Here's an approachable explanation of how it works in Michigan. 

 

https://eu.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2021/03/28/how-michigans-redistricting-process-work-and-how-get-involved/4700107001/

 

Overall looks pretty good, I have many minor quibbles, but I can't come up with a reasonable argument of how it could be considered worse than the current system, so I'd vote for it.

 

My biggest concern with any kind of system like this, is how it could be captured by malign interests (think organized crime, but it needn't be quite so explicitly criminal), so I think the selection process is paramount. It looks like a pretty good setup, and one that would be hard to institutionally capture, but that is far and away my biggest concern, and I hope appropriate thought has been given to that concern.

Thanks for sharing the Michigan process link. Please register for the session and you can ask your questions! The previous sessions have been very informative and interactive.

2 hours ago, GISguy said:

 

I'm curious how much leeway he has to push back on the language. Is there some crazy instance where he has the ability to spike it because he doesn't agree with it?

In theory he could, but then he would likely get sued by the petitioners. Keep in mind that this is the same process the abortion rights amendment had to go through, and it made it despite being much more explicitly unaligned with the AG’s politics than redistricting.

Moved this from the miscellaneous thread:

1 hour ago, Luke_S said:

So the target date for redistricting reform to be on the ballot is 2024. Regardless of how the lawsuits shake out new maps will have to be drawn under the current rules for the 2024 election cycle. Assuming this new amendment passes does the new redistricting commission take effect immediately? And if Republicans again draw maps passed along partisan lines the commission would draw the maps in 2028?

 

If that's the case, Republicans would smart to maps only as gerrymandered as Democrats will accept so that they can maintain a favorable environment for 2 more years, through 2030.

 

But under that scenario Democrats will have little incentive to accept maps that are gerrymandered to any extent to get truly fair maps as soon as possible.

 

Could make for some interesting gamesmanship and produce fairer maps even before it's formally adopted. 

I don’t think the maps will be redrawn for 2024 - they were passed as 4 year maps, and the new Ohio Supreme Court is unlikely to force a redraw. And while that sucks for the 2024 election and subsequent legislative delegation, the proposed amendment would immediately create the redistricting commission process and force a redraw of maps to be completed in 2025 and therefore applied to the 2026 election. (Section 18 of the legislation itself, if you’d like to check it out from the links in my posts in this thread)

46 minutes ago, Boomerang_Brian said:

Moved this from the miscellaneous thread:

I don’t think the maps will be redrawn for 2024 - they were passed as 4 year maps, and the new Ohio Supreme Court is unlikely to force a redraw. And while that sucks for the 2024 election and subsequent legislative delegation, the proposed amendment would immediately create the redistricting commission process and force a redraw of maps to be completed in 2025 and therefore applied to the 2026 election. (Section 18 of the legislation itself, if you’d like to check it out from the links in my posts in this thread)

 

Yeah, the Census was in 2020, so the new maps under the current redistricting procedures went into effect for the 2022 election, and with a "4 year" timeline, they will be used for 2022 and 2024. So we'll be voting for representatives the same year we vote to change the way we redistrict, which would impact the 2026 election.

I can't believe we have to keep voting just to make sure they do the thing we already told them to do.

This will mean lawsuits and/or another 1000 signature petition. 
 

https://x.com/ohfairdistricts/status/1694425159862452363?s=61&t=8m6OVkUD6kdclFnJD1n_Lg

 

Argh it’s so frustrating that stupid Twitter is hit or miss on embedding now.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2023/08/23/ohio-ag-rejects-language-for-redistricting-reform-measure/70643376007/

 

Ohio AG Dave Yost rejects language for 2024 redistricting reform ballot measure

 

^Here’s the reaction email I got from the petition organizers:

 

*****
 

Good Afternoon:

On August 14, Citizens Not Politicians launched a citizen initiative to thwart gerrymandering by putting voters in the driver’s seat. Today, Attorney General Dave Yost identified nine issues in the petition summary that his office believes are confusing and vague, misleading, or inaccurate—and so he declined to certify the summary and sent the campaign back to the drawing board. It is common for initial petition language to be rejected at least once. 

Read the statement from the Citizens Not Politicians campaign.

Now the summary language will be edited to address the AG’s concerns, and then an additional one thousand valid signatures are required to begin the certification process once again. 

Eventually, we will be able to begin to collect the required 413,487 signatures to put an independent redistricting commission on the ballot and in the Ohio Constitution, but we realize that this initial process can move slowly.

Please join us for the Fair Districts Volunteer Huddle on September 13 at 6 pm. We will discuss the Citizens Not Politicians Amendment and ways to get involved in the effort to take mapmaking out of the hands of elected officials and place it in the hands of an independent citizens redistricting commission. 

Thank you for all you do,

Mia Lewis for Common Cause Ohio and Fair Districts

I don't think this is entirely the worst thing in the world. Now if he rejects it for a second time...

1 hour ago, Dev said:

I don't think this is entirely the worst thing in the world. Now if he rejects it for a second time...

Probably more a matter of "when" than "if" 

^Fair enough

Work Begins (Again) to Un-Gerrymander Ohio’s Unconstitutional Maps

 

Two years on from the first attempt at congressional and statehouse redistricting in Ohio, a commission of elected officials is set to begin again next month.

 

The Ohio Redistricting Commission announced it will meet on Sept. 13 “for organizational purposes and to begin the process of drafting a General Assembly redistricting plan,” according to an official release.

 

The leaders of the commission are different than the first time around, with Republican state Rep. Jeff LaRe and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio standing in as co-chairs.

 

LaRe replaced former House Speaker Bob Cupp, and Antonio is taking over for Democratic state Sen. Vernon Sykes.

Original members include Gov. Mike DeWine, state Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Auditor of State Keith Faber, all Republicans.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/work-begins-again-to-un-gerrymander-ohios-unconstitutional-maps-ocj1/

Republicans Scramble to Figure Out Redistricting

 

It’s been more than a year since the Ohio Redistricting Commission met to adopt a Statehouse redistricting map.

 

But on Aug. 30, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said the work urgently needs to be finished by the end of September.

 

In a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine and other members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, along with House Speaker Jason Stephens and Senate President Matt Huffman, LaRose warned of a potential “conflict with the statutory requirements of election administration” if final maps aren’t approved by Sept. 22.

 

The state elections chief, who is also a member of the commission, came to the date after back-dating deadlines for the election, including the Dec. 20 deadline for candidates to file for a 2024 partisan primary.

 

Citing the Ohio Constitution, LaRose said General Assembly candidates have 30 days from the filing of a new district map with the Secretary of State’s Office to move into a new district.

 

“That is not, however, our deadline,” LaRose wrote in the letter. “Once new House and Senate maps are completed, the General Assembly must provide to my office updated legal descriptions and shape files to accompany each new district.”

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/republicans-scramble-to-figure-out-redistricting-ocj1/

 

Ohio Redistricting Commission Gets Back to Work This Month on Fixing Maps

 

Update 8/30 4:45 p.m. – Governor Mike DeWine’s office announced Wednesday that the governor will reconvene the Ohio Redistricting Commission on Sept. 13 at 10 a.m., which was the same day the commission had previously scheduled to start work.

 

The meeting will be held in the Rhodes State Office Tower’s lobby hearing room.

 

According to the official notice, after DeWine reconvenes the commission, “the appointments of any appointed members of the commission will be entered into the record, the administration of the Oath of Office will occur, the roll will be called, the co-chairpersons will be formally entered into the record and the meeting will be turned over to the co-chairpersons.”

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/ohio-redistricting-commission-gets-back-to-work-this-month-on-fixing-maps-ocj1/

 

They haven't met for over a year, the first meeting will be 9/13 and the final deadline to be done is 9/22, barely over a week later?

 

What a joke

 

Hopefully this is the last time we have to witness this farce before handing the reins to a independent citizen commission 

 

Edited September 6, 20231 yr by NW24HX

Looks like we’ll be using the same unconstitutional maps for the 2024 Ohio election. It’s almost certain that we will vote on an Ohio Constitutional amendment to create an independent redistricting commission on that same ballot. And when that passes, they will create new maps for the 2026 election. It sucks that we have to wait that long, but I’m hoping the changes will start to influence legislators’ behavior even during the ‘25-‘26 legislative session

 

https://x.com/jpelzer/status/1699774694193250681?s=46&t=7i2eCUyWNZMfcPIb8zesTg

37 minutes ago, Boomerang_Brian said:

Looks like we’ll be using the same unconstitutional maps for the 2024 Ohio election. It’s almost certain that we will vote on an Ohio Constitutional amendment to create an independent redistricting commission on that same ballot. And when that passes, they will create new maps for the 2026 election. It sucks that we have to wait that long, but I’m hoping the changes will start to influence legislators’ behavior even during the ‘25-‘26 legislative session

 

https://x.com/jpelzer/status/1699774694193250681?s=46&t=7i2eCUyWNZMfcPIb8zesTg

Clarification - this is just Congressional districts. The redistricting effort for the State Rep and senate maps continues. 

Honestly, this is a good thing. I was certain (given the Gerrymander wasn't effective enough in 2022) that they would make it worse since they have a chance.  The future of Ohio democracy resides in this 2024 Amendment.  We can't continue to have one party rule legislatively.

18 minutes ago, 10albersa said:

Honestly, this is a good thing. I was certain (given the Gerrymander wasn't effective enough in 2022) that they would make it worse since they have a chance.  The future of Ohio democracy resides in this 2024 Amendment.  We can't continue to have one party rule legislatively.

I agree on all points. 

Here is Democratic house leader and redistricting commissioner Allison Russo on why she voted yes for the gerrymandered maps:

 

Sad, sober reality: Allison Russo on why Democrats had no option but to support bogus maps
 

Rep. Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, is the minority leader of the Ohio House. She is a member of the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

Tuesday’s late-night Ohio Redistricting Commission vote in an empty Statehouse, surrounded by reporters, staffers, and only a few citizens, was maybe the hardest vote I’ve had to make as an elected official.

After more than two years of multiple rounds of court-ordered map redraws, I have been in the trenches of fighting back against a Republican-controlled Redistricting Commission that repeatedly passes unconstitutional, unfair, and unproportional maps.

 

But, at the end of this sixth round of another exhausting and willful disregard by Republican commissioners of the rule of law and the will of voters, I faced a sad and sober reality.

The sober reality of rigged redistricting process in Ohio.

A “no” vote would conclude with a two-year map more gerrymandered than the current unconstitutional 2022 maps, get a rubber stamp of approval by a new Ohio Supreme Court, and again subject Ohioans to even worse maps redrawn by this commission in 2025.

A “yes” vote would include a few marginal improvements to a clearly gerrymandered map, remove the drawing pen from this commission for eight years, and give the time and space forOhio citizens to take this process permanently out of the hands of politicians. Faced with two imperfect decisions, I voted “yes”.

How I came to that conclusion was not easy, but I know it was the right one.

Ohioans deserve to know the game was rigged before it even started.

We are 16-months late in responding to the last court order, yet the Republican-controlled commission waited until the last minute to bring us together following the announcement by Secretary of State Frank LaRose of a hurried timeline solely introduced to create a false sense of urgency to do something Republicans intended to do all along — pass gerrymandered maps with hardly any public input, all in order to expand their power grab on Ohio.

Ohio voters were treated like political pawns

When the commission did finally come together, it was marred by backroom political maneuvering, partisan tactics, and more than its fair share of controversy.

We are so far beyond where the Ohio Constitution and reforms passed overwhelmingly by voters ever contemplated. During the latest round, Republicans were literally making up the rules as they marched forward without fear of correction by an imbalanced Ohio Supreme Court. 

The current redistricting process is beyond broken - every meeting was deeply political, every decision a political one, and every district treated as a political pawn.

You can’t un-gerrymander gerrymandered maps when those in control are unwilling to relinquish their unearned power.

When Democratic commissioners were given a small amount of negotiating power to improve a handful of districts in the Republicans’ latest gerrymandered maps, you bet we seized the opportunity.

A 'yes' vote was the only viable option

Continuing to lose Democratic seats in a rigged Republican supermajority has real consequences for communities we represent and Ohio voters, and the certainty of losing more ground in the next election without the small map corrections we negotiated is irresponsible.

Two years can be an eternity in the Ohio General Assembly, and the risk of even worse maps drawn by this commission in another two years is too great to ignore. Under the 2022 unconstitutional maps, Ohio House Democrats went from 35 to 32 seats. That loss of three seats was the exact vote margin needed for Senate Joint Resolution 2, which became Issue 1 in the August special election, to fail and never come before voters.

Voting “no” for maps on principle alone in the high-stakes reality of the fight for democracy happening in our state legislature is simply not an option.  

My “yes” vote was not an endorsement of the final maps, which are still clearly gerrymandered, but a declaration of my commitment to stop the madness of a flawed process and find another way to fight for fair districts.

You may disagree with my vote and my reasoning, but do not mistakenly think I am deterred from our shared goal of giving Ohioans the government they deserve.  If you are angry about how this redistricting saga ended – good. Take that anger and turn it into action that ensures politicians are never again charged with drawing their own district lines.

Ohioans deserve an independent and citizen-focused redistricting process.

Over the last two years, I have often reminded my legislative colleagues that these districts do not belong to us. They belong to the voters.

As we all learned in August and will likely learn again in November, the right of Ohioans to have the final say when their government becomes non-responsive or corrupt is very powerful.

It’s time to use that citizen power again to permanently remove politicians from the redistricting process.

Rep. Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, is the minority leader of the Ohio House.

Anti-Gerrymandering Amendment Hits Delays

 

One might think that a movement associated with a former state Supreme Court chief justice could draft a petition summary that passes legal muster. But twice already, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has rejected summaries of a petition to put an anti-gerrymandering amendment on Ohio’s November 2024 ballot.

 

So far, nobody’s explicitly accusing Yost of deliberately slow-walking approval of the anti-gerrymandering amendment, but frustration is growing — and one advocate of redistricting reform pointed out that further delays can become critical quickly.

  

“The slower this goes, there are increasingly serious consequences,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, which supports the amendment.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/anti-gerrymandering-amendment-hits-delays-ocj1/

 

Redistricting amendment step 1: complete! AG Yost approved the language as “fair and truthful” on this third attempt. 

https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/2023/10/02/ohio-redistricting-reform-clears-1st-hurdle/71033108007/?csp=chromepush

 

Ohio redistricting measure to replace politicians with citizen panel clears 1st hurdle

Jessie Balmert

Cincinnati Enquirer

A group that wants to remove lawmakers from the process of drawing congressional and state legislative maps cleared its first hurdle Monday.

The group, Citizens Not Politicians, has proposed replacing the current Ohio Redistricting Commission, composed of three statewide elected officials and four lawmakers, with a 15-member citizen panel instead. Ohioans would have to approve that change to the state constitution, and the group is targeting the November 2024 ballot.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, certified the group's language as a "fair and truthful" summary of the constitutional amendment Monday after rejecting two prior versions.

Hopefully this is creates a citizens-based redistricting commission 

 

 

Ohio's gerrymandering looks like child's play compared to what I was used to coming from Illinois. Unfortunately I don't see this game ending anytime soon.

38 minutes ago, Rustbelter said:

Ohio's gerrymandering looks like child's play compared to what I was used to coming from Illinois. Unfortunately I don't see this game ending anytime soon.

This game will be over in 2025 after this independent redistricting commission amendment passes next  November by 10+ points. 2024 will be the last ridiculously gerrymandered election in Ohio, thankfully. 

56 minutes ago, Boomerang_Brian said:

This game will be over in 2025 after this independent redistricting commission amendment passes next  November by 10+ points. 2024 will be the last ridiculously gerrymandered election in Ohio, thankfully. 

I was speaking generally, but good to hear Ohio is doing something about this. In Illinois (my previous state of residence) it just seemed to get worse over the years.

I just hope 2024 is not the last election.

Ohio’s Fight for Fair Maps Continues

 

The recently-adopted Ohio House and Senate district maps have now received an official challenge with the Ohio Supreme Court.

 

Attorneys filed the challenge with the state’s highest court on Thursday, saying the Ohio Redistricting Commission “continues its open defiance of this Court’s orders” and asking that the court once again invalidate the maps as unconstitutional, also determining them an “insufficient remedy” to the requests the court made when they rejected the last maps and sent the task back to the ORC.

 

“Petitioners submit that this is the last chance to show that Ohioans were not sold a bill of goods in 2015 — the last chance to show that the current redistricting process is not irredeemably broken,” the groups wrote in their court challenge.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/ohios-fight-for-fair-maps-continues-ocj1/

 

More good news on the anti-gerrymandering efforts - petition organizers sent this update today:

 

“The Ballot Board met this morning and approved the Citizens Not Politicians proposed amendment as a single subject. This allows the campaign to officially begin signature collection. Over the next weeks we will be building a petition distribution and circulation infrastructure to support and center volunteers.”

 

There was some concern that the ballot board would split this up into separate issues, which would have greatly complicated efforts to pass this amendment. We are on the right track now. 

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2023/10/12/signature-collection-can-begin-for-ohio-redistricting-reform/71142492007/?link_id=3&can_id=5da39ea9fdbc7803aee34cb544607bde&source=email-ballot-board-signs-off-signature-collection-here-we-come&email_referrer=email_2076488&email_subject=ballot-board-signs-off-signature-collection-here-we-come

 

On 10/9/2023 at 12:50 PM, ColDayMan said:

Ohio’s Fight for Fair Maps Continues

 

The recently-adopted Ohio House and Senate district maps have now received an official challenge with the Ohio Supreme Court.

 

Attorneys filed the challenge with the state’s highest court on Thursday, saying the Ohio Redistricting Commission “continues its open defiance of this Court’s orders” and asking that the court once again invalidate the maps as unconstitutional, also determining them an “insufficient remedy” to the requests the court made when they rejected the last maps and sent the task back to the ORC.

 

“Petitioners submit that this is the last chance to show that Ohioans were not sold a bill of goods in 2015 — the last chance to show that the current redistricting process is not irredeemably broken,” the groups wrote in their court challenge.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/ohios-fight-for-fair-maps-continues-ocj1/

 

It would be interesting to find out who is behind the suit. I can't see the Ohio Democratic Party being happy about this. I wonder if it was a smaller citizen group that filed this on their own?

18 hours ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

It would be interesting to find out who is behind the suit. I can't see the Ohio Democratic Party being happy about this. I wonder if it was a smaller citizen group that filed this on their own?

The article states that one of the plaintiffs is the National Redistricting Action Fund. So it's the other way around: national Dems

8 hours ago, Dev said:

The article states that one of the plaintiffs is the National Redistricting Action Fund. So it's the other way around: national Dems

That is interesting. The state Dems (while not in support of the current districts) do not want to bring this to court because the Ohio SC will rule against them this year. This is why Russo and many of the state Dems on committee voted yes. Bringing this to Court and taking a loss would create a bad precedent when it may be best strategically to hold your fire for a time when the odds of success are better. 

Ohio Dems also know it's a waste of money for them. They need to focus those efforts on the redistricting initiative for next year. I'm sure the national Dem networks won't see this lawsuit as a particularly expensive endeavor, and I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some fundraising and other messaging specifically targeting the eventual court decision.

Report: Ohio Scores an “F” for Gerrymandered Districts

 

Ohio was one of seven states to receive the worst grade on its redistricting process and efforts, according to a report by the national group Common Cause.

 

The national group that works against gerrymandering and promote voting rights completed a report of all 50 states and profiled redistricting state-by-state with the help of a coalition of voting rights and anti-gerrymandering groups.

 

The reforms made in 2015 and 2018 were brought up in Ohio’s profile. In those years, the Ohio Redistricting Commission was created, and made up mostly of members of the majority party in the state, with two members of the minority party.

 

“This redistricting cycle in Ohio provided a textbook example of the lengths elected officials will go to prioritize partisanship over fair representation for the public,” according to the report.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/report-ohio-scores-an-f-for-gerrymandered-districts-ocj1/

 

6 hours ago, ColDayMan said:

Report: Ohio Scores an “F” for Gerrymandered Districts

 

Ohio was one of seven states to receive the worst grade on its redistricting process and efforts, according to a report by the national group Common Cause.

 

The national group that works against gerrymandering and promote voting rights completed a report of all 50 states and profiled redistricting state-by-state with the help of a coalition of voting rights and anti-gerrymandering groups.

 

The reforms made in 2015 and 2018 were brought up in Ohio’s profile. In those years, the Ohio Redistricting Commission was created, and made up mostly of members of the majority party in the state, with two members of the minority party.

 

“This redistricting cycle in Ohio provided a textbook example of the lengths elected officials will go to prioritize partisanship over fair representation for the public,” according to the report.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/report-ohio-scores-an-f-for-gerrymandered-districts-ocj1/

 

 

Of the 20 states with D+ or worse grades, 16 were deep red, 2 were somewhat purple (including Ohio if you still consider it a swing state, otherwise 17 red) and 2 were deep blue. Of the 15 that scored a B- to A+, 12 were deep blue, 2 were deep red and 1 was kind of purple. This makes it pretty clear who relies on gerrymandering a lot more.

Edited October 17, 20231 yr by jonoh81

It's disappointing that Michigan only got a B but since this was their first time using an IDC, I guess it makes sense.

Anti-Gerrymandering Amendment Can Collect Signatures for 2024 Ballot in Ohio

 

Activists who hope to pass an anti-gerrymandering amendment to the Ohio Constitution can now begin gathering the nearly half-million signatures on the need to get the measure on the November 2024 ballot after the amendment was approved as a single issue by the Ohio Ballot Board last Thursday.

 

Without much ceremony, the board unanimously agreed that the proposed amendment pertains to a single subject, which is required under Ohio law.

 

The timing of the approval is significant because early voting on two other measures that are on this year’s ballot started last week. Voting has begun on Issue 1, a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, and Issue 2, a voter-initiated statute legalizing recreational marijuana. The general election for those measures is Nov. 7.

 

Activists trying to get the anti-gerrymandering amendment on next year’s ballot have to gather about 415,000 verified signatures of registered voters. And because of a relatively high rate of rejections in previous efforts, they want to gather hundreds of thousands more than that.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/anti-gerrymandering-amendment-can-collect-signatures-for-2024-ballot-in-ohio-ocj1/

 

Ohio Will Remain Gerrymandered for the Time Being

 

In a drastic change from previous rulings, a partisan majority on the Ohio Supreme Court chose to leave Statehouse redistricting maps in place for 2024 and beyond, denying a challenge to the constitutionality of the newest maps.

 

In a 4-3 ruling released Monday evening, right-wing justices on the court pointed to the bipartisan support of the district maps adopted in September as one reason to dismiss challenges filed by the ACLU and anti-gerrymandering groups.

 

“The bipartisan adoption of the September 2023 plan is a changed circumstance that makes it appropriate to relinquish our continuing jurisdiction over these cases,” Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion, along with fellow justices Patrick Fischer, Patrick DeWine and Joseph Deters.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/ohio-will-remain-gerrymandered-for-the-time-being-ocj1/

 

Anti-Gerrymandering Amendment Could Go in Front of Ohio Voters in 2024

 

After the Ohio Supreme Court put a damper on efforts to challenge the current Statehouse redistricting plan, anti-gerrymandering advocates are moving on, with their sights on redistricting reform via the ballot box.

 

Those supporting reformed redistricting in Ohio that would eliminate the elected official-led Ohio Redistricting Commission with an independent panel of state residents took their disappointment that the Statehouse district maps adopted in September will be able to stand through 2030 and redirected it toward the effort to change the process.

 

“The process is the problem, and we will change it, putting citizens in charge of map-drawing, not the politicians whose futures depend on it,” said Jeniece Brock, policy and advocacy director for the Ohio Organizing Collaborative.

 

The OOC was one of the parties in lawsuits challenging not only the 2023 plan approved by a bipartisan vote of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, but also the last five Statehouse maps which were challenged after being approved by only the GOP majority of the commission.

 

Throughout the process, the OOC and their fellow map challengers argued the Statehouse maps were drawn with partisan favoritism toward the Republican party, and even Democratic-leaning districts could only be considered “toss-ups” in any given election.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/anti-gerrymandering-amendment-could-go-in-front-of-ohio-voters-in-2024-ocj1/

 

I’m listening to the Fair Districts (the group petitioning for the Independent Redistricting Commission) all volunteer huddle and I learned something new to me - the amendment also includes prison-population gerrymandering reform. Currently prisoners are counted in the district where they are incarcerated. This gives that district “unearned” population, particularly egregious since prisoners can’t vote. Once this amendment goes into effect, a prisoner will be counted (for population purposes) at their last primary residential address (where they lived for at least one year). This will be a much needed counter to the over-representation of rural districts that happen to have a prison. 
 

Please keep an eye out for petition collections and get your signature on there! Remember that you must sign a petition specific to your home county (where you are registered to vote). Usually petition gatherers will carry petitions for several local counties. 

1 hour ago, Boomerang_Brian said:

I’m listening to the Fair Districts (the group petitioning for the Independent Redistricting Commission) all volunteer huddle and I learned something new to me - the amendment also includes prison-population gerrymandering reform. Currently prisoners are counted in the district where they are incarcerated. This gives that district “unearned” population, particularly egregious since prisoners can’t vote. Once this amendment goes into effect, a prisoner will be counted (for population purposes) at their last primary residential address (where they lived for at least one year). This will be a much needed counter to the over-representation of rural districts that happen to have a prison. 
 

Please keep an eye out for petition collections and get your signature on there! Remember that you must sign a petition specific to your home county (where you are registered to vote). Usually petition gatherers will carry petitions for several local counties. 

 

Any idea when/where there might be signature drives in Cuyahoga county? 

21 minutes ago, Luke_S said:

 

Any idea when/where there might be signature drives in Cuyahoga county? 

I’m not seeing anything yet, but you’ll see lots of petition drives soon. Probably the best resource is Fair District’s web page:
 

https://www.fairdistrictsohio.org

Ohio business leaders support redistricting reform amendment

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/01/25/ohio-business-leaders-support-redistricting-reform-amendent/