Opponents of Ohio’s redistricting reform 1 say it would be harmful to communities of color. Supporters of the proposal to replace politicians with a citizens’ commission point out how the current maps fragment and pack in black voters.
Proposal Issue 1 would replace the current Ohio Redistricting Commission, made up of seven elected officials, with a 15-member commission made up of citizens.
The current commission includes Ohio’s governor, auditor and secretary of state, as well as four lawmakers – one from each party in each chamber of the Legislature. The proposed 15-member citizens commission would consist of five Republicans, five Democrats and five independents, selected by a bipartisan panel of former judges.
A “yes” vote on Issue 1 would create a 15-member Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission. A “no” vote on Issue 1 would maintain the current Ohio Redistricting Commission.
Arguments for and against the ballot initiative have been aimed at communities of color, with both sides arguing that the results of Issue 1 will have an impact on minority representation.
At a news conference at the Ohio Statehouse, state Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, asked former legislator John Barnes and two other Ohioans to urge voters to reject the ballot plan, saying the changes “could fragment cohesive minority voting blocs, weakening our political influence.”
“I am deeply concerned about the disastrous effects that Issue 1 will have on Ohio’s Black legislative and congressional districts,” said Reynolds, who is one of five Black members of the 33-member Ohio Senate and the only Republican.
One Democratic Party member, state Sen. Catherine D. Ingram, who is also vice chair of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, responded to Reynolds’ news conference by saying that Issue 1 “will ensure fair maps are drawn and expand opportunities for greater representation across our country.” countries, beyond the areas that have historically constrained us.”
“Black Americans have struggled with voting disenfranchisement for generations, and gerrymandering adds an additional barrier to our adequate representation,” Ingram said in a statement.
Edition 1 would create a 15-member citizen redistricting commission to replace the current commission. After a review process by a bipartisan panel of judges, elected citizen commissioners would be required to hold public hearings and transparently draw statehouse and congressional maps, as well as create maps that would receive a majority of the commission’s votes.
Drawing the maps would require compliance with federal laws such as the Voting Rights Act and the statewide partisan preferences of Ohio voters.
Current process
In 2021 and 2022, Republican partisans on the committee created five Ohio Statehouse maps and two U.S. Congressional district maps that a bipartisan majority of the Ohio Supreme Court found unconstitutional.
In 2023, the commission unanimously passed the Statehouse maps with bipartisan support, although Democrats they said they only support them because redistricting reform is on the way and if they voted for it, Republicans on the committee would draw even more gerrymandered maps.
Despite the fact that the congressional map was never amended to correct the errors found by the state’s highest court, it is the map used in the 2024 elections.
A recent analysis of the current congressional map by the League of Women Voters of Ohio found that in Massillon, what is considered a “large, politically cohesive African American population” was split between the 6th and 13th congressional districts.
“Instead of keeping this distinct community of interest united in a single congressional district, mapmakers divided Massillon in two, specifically cutting off areas with high concentrations of minority voters,” according to an analysis of the research by University of Cincinnati professor David Niven.
Niven called the one-third of Stark County voters placed in the 6th District “split voters,” citing research that has shown that being a “split voter” “inhibits the flow of political information, mobilization, and ultimately representation.”
“The political consequences of landing on the other side of these lines are enormous,” Niven wrote.
The drawing of some current congressional district boundaries is “inexplicable” and “drawn for the purpose of confusion rather than representation,” according to Niven’s research.
For example, the 1st District borders the 8th District, performing a “textbook gerrymandering maneuver – dividing the district and the city and creating confusion about who lives in which district, serving no legitimate purpose,” Niven wrote.
(*1*) Niven said .
Cracking and packing
Voting rights advocates tend to agree with this assessment, arguing that dividing communities means less visibility, and less visibility means a lack of attention from those who purport to represent them.
“What we’ve seen with majorities is that communities are left out of the conversation,” said Deidra Reese, director of voter engagement for the Ohio Organizing Collaborative and a supporter of No. 1. “Issues that come from communities that are less present in this body simply these issues must not be raised.”
Important issues in communities of color, as in other communities, may include health care, economic issues, gun law reform, and hunger. Without competitive districts, which create the need for representatives and senators to work with all kinds of voters, Reese said the legislation would not meet the needs.
“When you close the door on people by passing policy… it’s a disservice, and what’s happening is that African-Americans just don’t have representation,” Reese said.
Infant and maternal mortality rates have been noted to be a solemn problem for Black communities, who experience them disproportionately compared to their white counterparts.
LWV’s analysis found that these two very different death rates combine in some Congressional districts, such as the 9th, 12th and 2nd districts. The 9th District includes Lucas County, which has one of the highest infant mortality rates, and Wood County, which has one of the lowest. The 12th District includes high stakes in Holmes County and low stakes in Guernsey County. In Ohio’s second district, the infant mortality rate is high in Lawrence County and low in Scioto County.
“Again, this data raises an important question,” the LWV study wonders, “how could an elected leader develop policy solutions for their constituencies when the needs in their vast, twisted districts are so far apart?”
Kayla Griffin, president of the Cleveland chapter of the NAACP, said the fact that redistricting plans continue to be unfair despite previous redistricting legislative reforms in 2015 and 2018 leaves questions about how carefully elected officials of the Commission on Ohio Redistricting followed this process.
“I think this is becoming a serious problem that undermines the trust and democracy that we have,” Griffin said.
An even bigger problem facing Griffin and other advocates is the fear among many black voters that their vote doesn’t matter on the current maps and therefore won’t have much of an impact on November’s general election.
Those talking to voters are trying to focus on victories, particularly the rejection of a constitutional amendment that made it harder to change the nation’s founding document and the approval of a ballot initiative that enshrined reproductive rights in the same constitution.
“This is how our voice counts and this is how our voice is heard.” – said Gryf. “I’m letting people know we can do this again.”
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