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A lawsuit is coming over controversial ballot language adopted by Ohio Ballot Board
By: Jo Ingles | Statehouse News Bureau
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Backers of the constitutional amendment that seeks to take politicians out of the congressional and legislative map-drawing process are upset with the summary language approved by the Ohio Ballot Board. And the group behind the amendment said it’s are taking it to court next week.
Republicans on the Ballot Board approved wording that will appear in the November ballot that was written by the GOP secretary of state for an amendment on redistricting that most Republicans oppose.
“This is an example as to why we need to ban politicians from rigging our voting districts,” said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “The same folks that have rigged our voting districts are now rigging this language that will be on the ballot, and that’s illegal and it will manipulate voters. And they’re attempting to manipulate the outcome of the election.”
What happened at the Ohio Ballot Board meeting?
The Citizens Not Politicians amendment before voters this fall would use a 15-member commission to draw congressional and state legislative districts. Retired judges would help select the panel of five Republicans, five Democrats, and five independents to serve on the citizen’s panel. Politicians and lobbyists would not be allowed to serve on the panel. It would eliminate the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a panel of seven elected officials created in 2015. Supporters of this proposal say the process approved to oversee legislative maps in 2015 and congressional maps in 2018 has led politicians to produce maps that have been ruled unconstitutionally gerrymandered seven times.
The summary language, not the amendment itself, is what voters see on the ballot. Citizens Not Politicians had proposed a short summary of its detailed amendment with five bullet points.
But Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is a member of the Ohio Redistricting Commission and has voted for all the maps it’s approved, had other ideas. His office proposed a three-page summary.
Don McTigue, attorney for Citizens Not Politicians, said LaRose’s ballot language is more than four times longer than previous language on redistricting proposals. McTigue also said the wording is not constitutional because it breaks the rule that it be non-prejudicial. He called it “a farce of Shakespearean proportion”.
LaRose defended the length of the summary, saying the amendment itself was long and full of complicated ideas, and that a five-point summary wasn’t sufficient. He also pointed to one part he said would make it hard for citizens to express their opinions to board members.
“So let’s say, hypothetically, I was a member of the commission, which I wouldn’t be eligible for under this.
But if I were, and I was at a soccer game for one of my daughters and somebody walked up and said, ‘my neighborhood, my town is a community of interest. And we’re being divided in the most recent draft of the map. And I really think you should try to keep us whole,’” LaRose said. “That person would now be violating the Ohio Constitution by expressing to me their opinion about the public work that I was doing as a member of the redistricting commission.”
McTigue refuted that, saying the language LaRose was referring to is meant to prevent political persuasion over the redistricting process.
At one point during the meeting, Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) wanted to make a change to LaRose’s proposed language in this graph: “Establish a new taxpayer-funded commission of appointees required to manipulate the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts to favor the two largest political parties in the state of Ohio, according to a formula based on partisan outcomes as the dominant factor”.
She proposed swapping “manipulate” with “gerrymander.” That suggestion brought gasps and jeers from backers of the plan who packed the room.
The change Gavarone wanted passed 3-2, as did the rest of the language drafted by LaRose. For his part, LaRose said,“The summary approved by the board is fair and factual, and it accurately identifies the substance of the proposed amendment.”
(Read the text of the language that was adopted by the board here.)
After the meeting, House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) – who’s also on the Ohio Redistricting Commission – lambasted LaRose and the other Republicans for the wording, calling it “political theatre” and a “political hit job.”
“They continue to manipulate this process, to deceive voters, to be dishonest. The gaslighting that we saw today has been very refined over the last few years, through the redistricting commission last August with that special election, and last November when he did exactly the same thing and tried to manipulate the abortion amendment language,” Russo said. “It proves exactly why politicians should not be part of this process, and especially this secretary of state has no business being part of this process because he is deceptive. He gaslights voters and created this final language that was adopted.”
“It’s dishonest. It is a lie. It is a fraud to voters,” Russo added.
Citizens Not Politicians said the group will take the language passed by the board to court this week.