The Ohio redistricting committee approved a new map just minutes after a statutory deadline on Wednesday night. It was extremely unsettling, he said of the demographic changes. But Dr. Wang and other good-government experts cautioned that other factors. Efforts to curb racial gerrymandering have been hampered by a 2019 Supreme Court decision, which ruled that partisan gerrymandering could not be challenged in federal court. Ironically, so did Governor John Kasich, who signed Ohios rigged map into law and is a named defendant in our suit. It appears Mr. Diadiun is OK with Republican dominance of Ohio but not Democrats in Cuyahoga County. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Thanks to the FirstEnergy/House Bill 6 scandal, Ohioans now know it can cost up to $61 million to pass a bill in the General Assembly, though $61 million was arguably reasonable only because of the billion-dollar stakes in play. Texas is expected to pick up House seats after the 2020 census results are tabulated. Feel free to republish and share widely. Ohio is regularly on the "Top 10 Most Gerrymandered States" lists published by political researchers. That cant happen if Issue 1 wins approval on Aug. 8, because Issue 1 would require a 60% yes statewide vote to pass future constitutional amendments. That is according to a person with knowledge of a proposed settlement between the school and NCAA enforcement who spoke with The Associated Press. This is just the kind of one-sided partisan result that the 2018 constitutional amendment was designed to avoid. "We've heard for a decade how the people of Hamilton County cant get a phone call back from either of their two current congressional representatives," Marozzi said. Opponents say that is misleading at best. Bottom line: The net effect of Issue 1, should it pass, could be to end genuine voter-pushed amendments and practically speaking give the General Assembly a near-monopoly on proposing constitutional amendments. Though the court did leave intact Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial gerrymandering, it offered no concrete guidance on how to distinguish between a partisan gerrymander and a racial gerrymander when the result was both, such as in heavily Democratic Black communities. The Republicans in Columbus simply don't seem to care what the Ohio Constitution says. Not so if Issue 1 wins approval on Aug. 8: Petitioners would no longer have such a ten-day grace period. Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, said the decision sent a clear message to lawmakers that they cant put politics over people., The Ohio Supreme Courts decision is huge, she said in a statement. Primary election results: Ohio Issue 1 gerrymandering reform passes - Vox WASHINGTON With the election over and Democrats in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, officials in both parties are bracing for a bruising new battle with a different balance of power: the redrawing of congressional maps, where Republicans hold the advantage in many state legislatures across the country, including in key battlegrounds. Some good-government groups and political scientists have lobbied for more changes, such as the use of algorithms to determine district boundaries, though there is broad debate about what would be effective in erasing the partisan tilt of the process. Changing Ohio's constitution too easy. "At this point, one must wonder which seven-member body is the true redistricting commissionthe constitutionally named officers or this court?". 1332 Diversity-Breach of Contract: Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff: RSS Track this Docket Docket Report This docket was last retrieved on July 24, 2023. No new map for Ohio till 2022 after U.S. Supreme Court gerrymandering As a result, Democratic voters in Ohio have less power to effect change or demand representation on issues that are central to their lives. It was 1911, not 1991. I just didnt see it coming, he said in an interview. But Dr. Wang and other good-government experts cautioned that other factors could determine the majority. "Once again this is a victory for Ohio voters," League of Women Voters of Ohio Executive Director Jen Miller told Spectrum News 1. Remember, Ohio loses one congressional district because of the 2020 census, going from 16 districts to 15. . This bodes well for the 2022 election cycle and beyond.. Six of the seven alternative congressional district maps were drawn using Dave's Redistricting App, a free online tool for experimenting with political boundaries. And thats precisely why Capitol Squares in-crowd is so desperate to win approval of Issue 1: Making it harder for voters to amend the state constitution guarantees business as usual inside in the Ohio General Assembly. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Why vote 'no' on Issue 1? More LOCAL to Love. "It's outrageous," said Caleb Faux, the former Hamilton County Democratic Party executive director. And in states like Alabama and South Carolina, Republican map drawers are continuing a decades-long tradition of packing nearly all of the Black voting-age population into a single congressional district, despite arguments from voters to create two separate districts. More: Q&A: What Ohioans need to know about the August election on Issue 1. The Ohio Supreme Court declared newly drawn legislative maps invalid on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, giving the state's new bipartisan redistricting panel 10 days to fix GOP-drawn boundaries that would have retained Republican supermajorities in both chambers. Worries are also spreading through Ohios state legislative Black caucus, which includes 19 state representatives and senators and which is one of the oldest Black caucuses in the nation. Ohio's Worst-Gerrymandered Districts and Why they Look Like That Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. The balance of power established by gerrymandering can give either party an edge that lasts through several election cycles; court challenges even if successful can take years to unwind those advantages. The most recent results show that Republicans were preferred to Democrats in the state by a margin of 56 to 44 percent. More than half the worlds population sees AP journalism every day. The problem is there is simply no population in those areas. Also, for 111 years, if sponsors of an amendment submit petitions with fewer than the required number of voter signatures, sponsors are granted an additional ten days to gather the necessary signatures. "Ohioans voted for fair maps," former Ohio state senator and U.S. congressional candidate Nina Turner tweeted in response to the ruling. One council member wants it repealed, Metro expanding service to new Greyhound station in Arlington Heights, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Montgomery counties have the highest prevalence of Alzheimer's in Ohio, Players from Joe Nuxhall's Miracle League Fields hit the road this week for the first time, Republican firm's poll shows Beshear up 10 points on Cameron in Ky. governor's race, A Columbus zoo gorilla thought to be a male has given birth, CPD officer attacked with own Taser, baton at Sawyer Point Park, FOP president says. We all know how representative democracy is supposed to work each election cycle, citizens vote to determine which elected officials will represent them in Congress. Republicans have, for the most part, adopted an elections-have-consequences attitude toward the mapping process. He is spending his first weeks as chairman devising a plan to challenge and offset Republican efforts. As a result of the new map, Republican candidates earned 51 percent of the statewide vote in 2012, but secured 75 percent of the states congressional seats. J. Todd Rutherford, a Black Democrat from Columbia who serves as the minority leader of the state House of Representatives, said that maps proposed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. that would have maintained majority-Black districts would have been subject to their own gerrymandering objections because many of the states new residents were white retirees. The Ohio GOP's congressional map is bad - really bad: Commentary - WVXU We answer your most pressing questions about redistricting and gerrymandering. Well, maybe because constituents getting return phone calls from their congressional offices was not the GOP priority in map-making. If the map plays out fairly, we will end up with more competitive seats than we have now.. Changing Ohio's constitution too easy. Prior to the 2011 redistricting process, District 1 was competitive it swung back and forth between Republicans and Democrats, including in 2008 when a Democrat won the district. November 20, 2021 at 11:26 a.m. EST. If Issue 1 passes, about the only amendments likely to even reach the ballot could be those proposed by the General Assemblys GOP supermajorities. Ohio redistricting 2022: Congressional maps by district Redistricting in Ohio Here's how new congressional maps shift voting power in every state By Janie Boschma, Rene Rigdon, Byron Manley. Today, the ACLU filed a lawsuit seeking to replace Ohios gerrymandered map with one that reflects the will of voters and complies with the Constitution before the 2020 elections. Ohio is a Republican state. In a 4-3 ruling, the court sent the maps back to the Ohio Redistricting Commission to take another crack at complying with provisions of a 2015 constitutional amendment. It turns off even some supporters. Opinion: Issue 1: It is already hard enough to amendment Ohio's constitution. Instead of belonging to the same district as others living in Cleveland, she shares a district with people living in Toledo, which is 108 miles away. July 18, 2023. The Democrats were able to win the House in 2018 despite the fact that there were some very gerrymandered states, said Jonathan Cervas, a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University who studies gerrymandering. State Senator Rob McColley, a Republican who sponsored the bill that established the new maps, did not respond to requests for comment. That phenomenon encouraged the Republican Party's fealty to President Trump as he pushed his baseless claims of election fraud. 'Victory': Ohio Supreme Court Strikes Down GOP Partisan Gerrymandering Jan 12, 2022 Democracy defenders on Wednesday cheered a ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court that invalidated Republican-drawn state legislative district maps, which a majority of the justices found were unconstitutionally gerrymandered against the will of the state's voters. "It's not hard to make maps that keep communities whole and serve everyday Ohioans. Making Chabot's life easier apparently was. Think theres any chance the legislature will propose a true anti-gerrymandering amendment? Mike DeWine a landslide . However, the revisions did nothing to change the partisan make-up of any of the proposed districts or the dramatic advantage it provided the Republicans. The things to focus on, he said, were defending maps drawn by Republican legislatures and also being more aggressive about going after Democrat gerrymanders in the blue states.. In 2016, the Ohio GOP took 57 percent of the vote, and yet again kept 75 percent of the Congressional seats. 1332 Diversity-Declaratory Judgment: Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff: RSS Track this Docket Docket Report This docket was last retrieved on July 24, 2023. More about Reid J. Epstein, A version of this article appears in print on, Map by Map, G.O.P. Here's the analysis Tuesday night from Fair Districts Ohio, a coalition of organizations that has been lobbying for a plan that follows the Ohio Constitution: "The map divides populous counties, dilutes the power of minority representation, and advantages the political party in power. And Issue 1 would make it very difficult for voters, on their own, to propose future constitutional amendments. With Democrats holding a 222-211 edge, Republicans would probably need to flip just six seats to win back the majority. Direct to your inbox. This congressional map does not reflect my constituents or my county," Thomas said in a written statement. The Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state's Republican-drawn congressional map Tuesday, ruling that districts used in the May primary violate anti-gerrymandering rules in the state Constitution . And thats precisely why General Assembly Republicans devised Issue 1 to handcuff voters. This district was once represented by President William Henry Harrison. The Gerrymander Battles Loom, as G.O.P. Looks to Press Its Advantage Top Ohio court strikes down state's gerrymandered - POLITICO Black elected officials in several states, from Congress down to the counties, have been drawn out of their districts this year or face headwinds to hold onto their seats. Ohios Bill of Rights says, All political power is inherent in the people. But Issue 1 says all political power is inherent in Statehouse insiders who have the legislatures ears. Ohio's congressional results suggest newly gerrymandered map more (AP Photo/Julie Carr Smyth, File) - ASSOCIATED PRESS By Published 11:41 AM PDT, June 30, 2023 Without a doubt its worse than it was in any recent decade, said Leah Aden, a deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. We have so much to contend with and its all happening very quickly.. To recap: Ohio voters in 2015 and 2018 strongly backed constitutional amendments designed to rein in gerrymandering i.e., the process of drawing districts to favor one party or another. November 12, 2022 This is the Ohio congressional district map being used for the 2022 election, with 15 U.S. House seats, down from 16 in the elections from 2012 through 2020. The proposed maps would have given Republicans a 57 to 42 seat advantage in the state House and a 20 to 13 seat advantage in the state Senate. Southern District of Ohio | Former central Ohio man pleads guilty to Quality journalism. Rob McColley of Napoleon, the chief sponsor of the GOP bill, says the partisan breakdown might not be so important because elections can be unpredictable. More: Over 150,000 Ohioans cast ballots in first week of early voting for August election. More than 30 years ago, Robert Reives Sr. marched into a meeting of his county government in Sanford, N.C., with a demand: Create a predominantly Black district in the county, which was 23 percent Black at the time but had no Black representation, or face a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act. "We the voters get to choose our politicians. PublishedNovember 17, 2021 at 1:23 PM EST, The Ohio Newsroom: A Public Media Collaboration, It's official: Proposed abortion amendment will be on Ohio's November ballot, Dean Regas is leaving the Cincinnati Observatory, Trader Joe's has issued recalls for 2 types of cookies that could contain rocks, Cincinnati voters banned traffic cameras 15 years ago. Yeah when water runs uphill. A federal judge has blocked a rule that allows immigration authorities to deny asylum to many migrants who arrive at the U.S. Julie covers government and politics from Ohio. Gerrymandering comes up every 10 years, after census data comes out and the districts that define state representatives and senators, along with Ohio's congressional leaders, are redrawn during the redistricting process. And for 111 years, Ohioans have been able to place a proposed a constitutional amendment on the ballot by gathering a specified share of signatures from at least 44 of Ohios 88 counties. Absolutely and its unconstitutional whichever party does it. But the number of Black legislators being drawn out of their districts outpaces that of recent redistricting cycles, when voting rights groups frequently found themselves in court trying to preserve existing majority-minority districts as often as they sought to create new ones. Letters: Stop the gaslighting. Its creator, Dave Bradlee, modified the app to make this project possible. Republicans, who have vastly more control over redistricting nationally than Democrats do, defend their maps as legal and fair, giving a range of reasons. A loss in the Ohio Supreme Court would send it back to the Republican majority to try again. tsuddes@gmail.com. Across the country, the precise number of elected officials of color who have had their districts changed in such ways is difficult to pinpoint. 07/19/2022 02:16 PM EDT COLUMBUS, Ohio The Ohio Supreme Court rejected a second Republican-drawn map of U.S. House districts as gerrymandered on Tuesday, sending it back for a third attempt. The county commission refused, and Mr. Reives prepared to sue. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Ohio justices toss GOP Statehouse maps, order fix in 10 days From the Cincinnati Enquirer : The 5-2 vote along partisan lines came after hours of . Ohio's 1st congressional district - Wikipedia Supreme Court directs Ohio's top court to take another look at District 9 includes fragments of two of Ohios major cities: Cleveland and Toledo. By browsing this site, we may share your information with our social media partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy. The decision impacts three separate lawsuits against the maps brought on behalf of Ohio voters by a host of national groups, including the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, CAIR-Ohio and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. Using partisan indices to draw the districts, the operatives designed a map that would allow Democrats to win four districts, while ensuring Republican wins in the states other 12 districts. Chips Away at Black Democrats Power, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/18/us/politics/gop-gerrymandering-black-democrats.html. Ohio Supreme Court scraps 2nd GOP-drawn congressional map Kelly Ward Burton, the president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, at her Santa Barbara home. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has signed into law a congressional map that creates 15 new districts in the state, but anti-gerrymandering advocates are slamming the map saying it was. State Representative Juanita Brent, the vice president of the state legislative Black caucus, who has represented parts of Cleveland since 2019, was moved into a neighboring district. In Louisiana, Gov. In his amicus brief, Governor Kasich wrote, Partisan gerrymanders are unconstitutional, are harming our republican government, and readily can be identified and addressed by courts.. Writing for the majority, Justice Melody Stewart, a Democrat, said the maps favored one party and didnt meet the amendments standard that the districts must be proportionally distributed to reflect Ohios 54% Republican, 46% Democratic voter mix. Ohio has one of the most restrictive deadlines for registering to vote in the country 30 days before an election, unless that falls on a weekend or holiday, as it does this year. Mia Lewis, associate director of Common Cause Ohio, said the switcheroo of maps the Republicans pulled Monday night did not make the situation better or the proposed map any more palatable. A decade ago, Mr. Diaz led the Fair Districts Now effort, which proposed a constitutional amendment offering guidelines for redistricting in Florida. In a letter to all Republican state legislative leaders nationwide, Chris Jankowski, then-president and chief executive officer of the RSLC, offered a team of seasoned redistricting experts available to you at no cost to your caucus for assistance.. Almost all of the affected lawmakers are Democrats, and most of the mapmakers are white Republicans. In New York, where Democrats hold control over redistricting for the first time in more than a century, half of the Republican congressional delegation either seven or eight members, depending on the outcome of one undecided race could see their districts disappear if Democrats pursue the most aggressive gerrymandering available. Passage of Issue 1 would insure Republican dominance. Still, the combination of sophisticated mapmaking software and the abbreviated map-drawing period will give Republican lawmakers a far freer hand to put into effect favorable districts in the next year. The commission now has 10 days to come up with a new plan that is constitutional. That, in and of itself, makes this a bad map. "The Ohio Supreme Court cannot be more clear: Republicans must produce fair maps that accurately reflect our state, not the Ohio GOP's political wishlist.". At the same time, he said, Democrats had to gerrymander legislative maps to maintain Black districts because of Black population losses in rural areas even as the number of white residents in the state surged. A host of states have adopted independent commissions to draw maps, arguing that people without a vested interest would be more likely to draw fairer maps. South Carolina Republicans, Mr. Rutherford said, exploited that population shift. The current map, adopted in 2011, has the county divided between two congressional districts - Ohio-1, represented by Republican Steve Chabot and Ohio-2, represented by Republican Brad. ", Alicia Bannon, director of the Judiciary Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said in a statement welcoming the ruling that "today the Ohio Supreme Court held the Ohio Redistricting Commission accountable to the constitution. Mom is 'upset and appalled' after water park told her to stop breastfeeding in lazy river, Florida Supreme Court reprimands judge for conduct during Parkland school shooting trial, Majority of Ohioans support abortion rights amendment, according to new poll, Ohio voters appear primed to back abortion rights measure, the latest sign of the post-Roe fury, Poll: 58% of likely Ohio voters back proposal to enshrine abortion access in constitution. Filing fee not paid, IFP. Voting rights advocates say Ohio congressional map is gerrymandered - NPR The new state House and Senate maps drawn by the GOP-dominated Ohio Redistricting Commission were previously rejected by the court last month. And, yes, it is bad, this Republican map which is moving at warp speed through the Republican-dominated Ohio General Assembly. The biggest Democratic state, California, outsources redistricting to a commission, as do Colorado, Virginia and Washington. After the 2011 redistricting, two Democratic candidates for U.S. House of Representatives Marcy Kaptur of Toledo and Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland were forced into a primary election, where only one would survive. Outside of the State Capitol in Austin. Thats the same General Assembly that was up to its collective neck in the House Bill 6/FirstEnergy affair, the biggest Statehouse scandal in 220 years of statehood. Already, Republicans are discussing redrawing two suburban Atlanta districts held by Democrats to make one of them more Republican; slicing Democratic sections out of a Houston district that Republicans lost in 2018; and carving up a northeastern Ohio district held by Democrats since 1985. She will be the swing vote and could very well end up voting with the Democrats. In Georgia, another member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Lucy McBath, had her district drawn to be safely Republican. The decision . The current map, adopted in 2011, has the county divided between two congressional districts Ohio-1, represented by Republican Steve Chabot and Ohio-2, represented by Republican Brad Wenstrup. This year, Texas (with potentially three new seats) and Florida (two) are expected to be the biggest winners, while Illinois, New York and, for the first time, California will each lose seats once the Census Bureau makes the reapportionment figures official. Columnist Ted Diadiuns defense of issue 1 is a demonstration of contortion. That's the minimum time for registration allowed under federal law. The commission is now tasked with drawing replacement maps.". ", "Politicians do not get to choose their voters," the group added. Date Filed Document Text; July 24, 2023: Filing 5 ORDER - In accordance with Southern District of Ohio Civil Rule 8.1, the Commissioner shall file and serve a certified copy of the administrative record within 60 DAYS after filing of the Social Security Identification Form and the Complaint as required by Southern District of Ohio Civil Rule 8.1(a), which copy shall function as the Answer. Allison Riggs, a co-executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, a civil rights group, said that the gerrymandering was really an attack on Black voters, and the Black representatives are the visible outcome of that.. Out of control lawmakers will have all the power| Suddes, Stepdad wins big Powerball prize and gives his stepdaughter good and bad news.