Activists hoping to pass an amendment to the Ohio Constitution to prevent gerrymandering can now begin collecting nearly half a million signatures to put the bill on the November 2024 ballot, after the amendment was approved as a single issue by the Ohio Ballot Board on Thursday.
Without further ado, the Board unanimously agreed that the proposed amendment addresses one subject that is required by Ohio law.
The timing of the approval is significant because early voting on two other measures on this year’s ballot began yesterday (Thursday). Voting began Issue 1a constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion and Number 2voter-initiated legislation legalizing recreational marijuana. A general election on the measure will be held on November 7.
Activists trying to get the anti-gerrymandering amendment on next year’s ballot need to collect about 415,000 verified signatures from registered voters. And because of the relatively high rejection rate in previous efforts, they’re looking to collect hundreds of thousands more.
They say approving the summary language now allows them to do their jobs at county boards of elections, where registered voters gather to cast ballots on this year’s abortion and marijuana bills. Petition canvassers will also be able to work in voter-rich neighborhoods near polling places on Election Day.
The approval comes at the last minute for activists. Attorney General Dave Yost twice rejected the petition summary did not adequately reflect the proposed amendment prior to its approval on the third attempt.
Ohio is considered one of the most extreme gerrymandered states in the country. While Donald Trump won the state with less than 54% of the vote in 2020, Republicans control 68% of the state House seats, 78% of the state Senate and 66% of the U.S. House of Representatives seats.
Although In 2015 and 2018, amendments aimed at curbing extreme partisan gerrymandering in the legislature and Congress passed with majorities of more than 70% of the vote.
After the 2020 census, the Republican-dominated redistricting commission created by those amendments ignored rulings from the Ohio Supreme Court’s bipartisan majority seven times. The rulings found that the commission’s redistricting districts violated the same amendments’ anti-gerrymandering provisions.
So now Ohio state legislators represent districts that the state’s highest court has ruled unconstitutional.
Former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, voted with three Democrats on the Supreme Court to rule that districting was unconstitutional, but she was forced to retire last year because of her age.
Now he’s teaming up with anti-gerrymandering activists to try to get the latest proposed amendment on next year’s ballot. It tries to eliminate power grabs when district lines are drawn by creating an independent commission to draw them, as opposed to the current one, which is made up entirely of elected officials.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose voted with other Republicans on the Redistricting Commission to support the current, unconstitutional maps. In his role as head of the Voting Board, he voted Thursday to approve the latest proposed anti-gerrymandering amendment. But he emphasized that the vote was only on whether its wording applied to a single topic.
“Let me remind you again that we are not here today to debate the merits of this proposal, but merely whether it constitutes a single proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution,” he said.
Senator Paula Hicks-Hudson, a Toledo Democrat, nonetheless spoke out on the merits of the proposal.
“I want to recognize and support the citizens of Ohio who are working to create equitable opportunity… to ensure that their constituencies reflect everything that Ohioans believe is important and that their government is responsive to the citizens of Ohio,” she said.
LaRose then reiterated that the vote was not about the merits of the proposed anti-gerrymandering amendment.
