Civil rights organizations across the state supported Ohio’s proposed redistricting reform 1 and spoke in favor of it at a town hall Tuesday evening.
The impact of No. 1 on Black communities was as follows for discussion over the past few weeks, while Republican officials have argued that such a measure would fragment communities and prevent black voters from gaining the power they should have, while Democrats and supporters of Issue 1 argue that the current system already excludes black voters from positions of power and that the Ohio General Assembly as it currently stands has shown no interest in improving the lives of these black communities.
“It is so disheartening that politicians not only committed an egregious act of gerrymandering, but their actions disenfranchised thousands of voters for years,” said Petee Talley, a retired AFL-CIO state official and leader of the Ohio Unity Coalition, the state affiliate of the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation.
This week’s virtual town hall included representatives from the Ohio NAACP, the Columbus chapter of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, alumni of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., the Ohio Organizing Collaborative and the faith-based support group The AMOS Project.
Talley has personal experience to draw on in her fight against the current redistricting system, as she says she and her neighbors haven’t been able to vote for a state Senate candidate since 2018.
In her district near the University of Toledo, Talley voted for state senator when she was in the 11th District in 2018. However, after redistricting, approximately 33,000 of those voters were moved to the 2nd Senate District, which did not have a 2022 race. district forced them to act once again when Talley and her neighbors were moved back into the 11th district in the latest maps.
“Which means that we will once again not be able to vote for state Senate district representation this year because the 2nd Senate District is up for election, not the 11th Senate District,” Talley told the crowd at City Hall.
But she will vote for No. 1 in November to reform the process and hopefully correct the mistakes she and others speaking at City Hall saw when the Ohio Redistricting Commission ran the process, she said.
The Ohio Redistricting Commission, under the current process, is composed entirely of elected officials, including the governor, auditor, secretary of state and legislative leaders of both parties.
Issue 1 replaced it with a 15-member citizens’ redistricting commission that would be selected by a bipartisan judicial panel through a vetting process to eliminate people with partisan or other special interests, according to the language of the proposal. The commission would consist of five Republicans, five Democrats and five independents.
A “yes” vote on Issue 1 would create a 15-member citizen commission that would then work on maps that would go into effect in 2026. A “no” vote would leave the commission chaired by an elected official unchanged, and all current processes would remain the same .
As part of the current lawsuit, town hall participants noted that a Republican staffer was asked whether the study used demographic and racial data. ohio statehouse map sample from september 2021. That staffer said he was “directed” not to include that data on legislative maps he and other staffers drew.
“We did not use demographic or racial data to create our maps,” GOP staffer Ray DiRossi said at the time. “Legislative leaders instructed us not to use this data, so we didn’t use it.”
Of the six Statehouse maps adopted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission, five were found unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court. Of the two congressional maps adopted by ORC, both were found to favor the Republican Party in a way that did not reflect voting trends in the state over the past 10 years, as required by the redistricting process.
Panelists answering questions at Tuesday’s virtual town hall said that, contrary to what Issue 1 opponents claim, the status quo would include blocking legislation that would have a positive impact on Black Ohioans and continuing to focus on “wedge issues,” as a supporter of Issue 1 and were, said Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown.
“Until (Issue 1) was on the ballot, I had never heard Republican Party leaders talk about helping black people” – McGee Brown. “It’s the oldest okie doke I’ve ever seen, where they start pulling out Black people to tell you, ‘Oh, this is bad for Black people.’”
According to Deidra Reese, director of voter engagement at the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, the voices lost in the state’s gerrymandering are those crying out for aid in education, prescription drug cost containment, transportation services, infrastructure needs and library services, among others, in Black communities and many others. asking the legislator for support.
“There are issues that affect our home communities that are right in front of us… that could be addressed in our communities, but we are cut off,” Reese said.
According to Talley, just being able to vote for candidates can make lives better, but she doesn’t think that’s going to happen in the current process.
“We have to stand up and say ‘enough’,” Talley said. “We cannot get into the game if we continue to allow these manipulated maps to remain unchanged.”
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