Signatures are being collected for an anti-gerry gerrymandering ballot measure in Ohio that would replace politicians on the redistricting commission with citizens. As the July deadline approaches, supporters point to a novel study showing how uncompetitive the Statehouse races are.
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School analyzed current maps of Ohio along with the results of the last primary elections.
The study’s authors said the data “shows one of the tangible ways Ohio’s gerrymandered maps undermine electoral competition and how districts leave millions of Ohio voters without a meaningful say in the Ohio House elections scheduled for November.”
“The vast majority of Ohioans will vote this November in legislative districts that were drawn to determine the general election results, and several districts had significant primary elections,” the Brennan Center report said. “These are the predictable consequences of living in a mannered country.”
One of the authors of the report published on Tuesday is Yuri Rudenski, who spoke in favor of a novel voting initiative that is to be sent to voters in November. If it comes to the ballot and is approved by voters, the reforms would replace Ohio’s current Redistricting Commission, made up of elected officials, citizen-led and judge-reviewed, with a commission that will draw the maps of the next House of Representatives and the U.S. Congress.
Rudensky spoke on a March panel with former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and others about the difference between the reforms passed in 2015 and 2018 and the proposed amendment that voters may see on their ballots in the general election.
During a March panel discussion, Rudensky was hesitant to call the latest two measures reforms because he argued no changes were made and the previous amendments merely showed that “political insiders shouldn’t get involved in this.”
Since the passage of these amendments – reforms made through legislative negotiations before reaching voters – the Ohio Redistricting Commission has been built around a Republican majority that includes Gov. Mike DeWine, Senate President Matt Huffman, former House Speaker Bob Cupp, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and State Auditor Keith Faber, all of whom served on the committee during some or all of the proceedings in the two years it took the group to adopt six Statehouse maps and two Congressional maps. State Rep. Jeff LaRe, R-Violet Twp., replaced Cupp, and state Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, replaced Huffman at the end of the biennium.
A bipartisan majority of the Ohio Supreme Court has five times found that Statehouse maps were changed unconstitutionally, but federal judges forced voters to operate them in the 2022 election.
The statehouse maps adopted by the redistricting commission last September for operate in this year’s elections were the only ones to receive bipartisan agreement (with votes from Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio and House Minority Leader Allison Russo), while the statehouse map in Congress is still considered unconstitutional under Art Ohio Supreme Court ruling.
Analyzing current Ohio Statehouse maps, Rudensky and co-author Gina Feliz concluded that about 77% of the state’s population lives in “districts where state representative elections are not seriously contested.”
“This means that these districts are either uncontested or give one party a disproportionate advantage in the general election, making the district uncompetitive even if it is formally contested,” the researchers wrote.
The report defined “uncompetitive” districts as partisanship favoring one side by 55% or more.
A Brennan Center study, citing data from the Ohio Secretary of State, found that in March, nearly half of Ohio House of Representatives districts did not hold a primary that could have led the race in the November general election.
“There are a total of 15 districts (out of 99 total) that do not offer voters a choice between Democratic and Republican state representative candidates,” the study found.
The report also pointed to low turnout in the state during the primary season, with an average of 18.8% of registered voters casting ballots in counties with competitive primaries.
Because of this, Rudensky and Feliz counted fewer than 450,000 voters who “almost decided who would be the state representative on behalf of more than 2.3 million registered voters and 3.5 million voters.”
The report identified the proposed “Citizens, Not Politicians”-led voting initiative as a redistricting reform that could “focus on community needs and voter preferences rather than the interests of those in power.”
Looking toward a future in which there may be an independent redistricting commission, the voting rights group Common Cause released its own report, a summary of a 2023 conference in which members reflected on states where such a system already exists, and states like Ohio that could see changes come in November.
“Not surprisingly, all conference participants believed in the possibilities of fair and representative maps and that independent redistricting commissions are the best strategy to achieve this goal,” Common Cause said in a novel report.
“Action plan for Trade Fair Maps until 2030”, the summary of the 2023 National Conference of Citizens Redistribution Commissioners mentioned the need to make redistricting a transparent process that is “responsive to community needs”. The report said the conference organized a “model commission” for Ohio and neighboring Indiana “to demonstrate how an alternative process based on community input and transparency could work.”
In a previous report released shortly after the Ohio Redistricting Commission adopted the current Statehouse district maps, Common Cause gave the state a failing grade, calling the current map-drawing process and the resulting results “an unmitigated disaster.”
Common Cause members said that ideally, when redistricting occurs, the process should “ensure that commissions reflect the diversity of jurisdictions” and engage local organizations and leaders to build trust with residents and hold commissions accountable.
The process should not include commissioners appointed by the Legislature or any legislative role in the mapping process, according to the report.
“The Commission’s decisions on maps should be final, barring judicial review, and should not require the approval of elected officials,” the report said.
The report endorsed the Citizens, Not Politicians initiative as part of a strategy to “increase equitable representation in 2030” when the process is next set to begin, although maps in Ohio will need to be redrawn in 2025 if the resolution passes. November.
Opposition to the initiative was led by Huffman, who helped formulate previous redistricting reforms. At an event at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce after the March primary election, he presented his arguments against the initiative, arguing that litigation would arise over the proposed system and that “when allowed to work,” the current system has served its purpose.
For the measure to appear on Ohio ballots in the general election, supporters must collect 413,487 valid signatures from state voters by July 3.
