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Legislature Misses The Deadline For New Congressional Map

By: Andy Chow | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Thursday, September 30, 2021

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The Ohio Redistricting Commission is going back to work, this time drawing a new Congressional district map after state lawmakers failed to agree on one before the constitutional deadline.

The state legislature was required to create a new Congressional district map by the end of September.

Now that they’ve missed the deadline, it’s the Ohio Redistricting Commission’s turn to draw the lines.

Ohio will lose a Congressional seat, going from 16 to 15.

Voters approved a new process to draw the Congressional map in 2018, in an effort to stop gerrymandering, where the districts are drawn to favor one party over another.

Legislative leaders say the delay in U.S. Census Bureau data is the reason for missing the deadline. The redistricting commission also missed a deadline while drawing the House and Senate districts.

The Ohio Redistricting Commission is facing three lawsuits accusing those recently approved state legislative maps of being gerrymandered.

Those maps retain Republican supermajorities in the Ohio House and Senate.

The redistricting commission has until the end of October to reach a bipartisan agreement for a 10-year map.