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Backers of the redistricting amendment sue Republican-run panel over ballot language
By: Jo Ingles | Statehouse News Bureau
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Supporters of the redistricting amendment that will be on the ballot this November have filed suit against the Ohio Ballot Board over summary language it approved for the issue Friday. The summary language is what voters will see on the actual ballot – not the amendment itself. And in this lawsuit filed at the Ohio Supreme Court, Citizens Not Politicians, the group bringing the amendment forward, said the ballot summary language is not factual, is partisan, misleading, and therefore, unconstitutional.
On Friday, the Republican-dominated Ohio Ballot Board passed a three-page summary written by Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is a member of the Ohio Redistricting Commission and has voted for all the maps it has approved. Those maps have been declared unconstitutional seven times but a federal court relented to allow them to be used through the end of this year because time was running out to develop new ones.
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 summary length, saying the amendment itself was long and full of complicated ideas, and that a five-point summary wasn’t sufficient. And in the end, the board passed the summary proposed by LaRose with one change – an amendment by fellow Republican Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) that changed the word. She proposed swapping the word, “manipulate” with “gerrymander.” That suggestion brought gasps and jeers from backers of the plan who packed the room. Once that adoption was approved, the majority Republicans, by a 3-2 margin, approved a language that includes this section:
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”.
On a podcast for the Ohio Senate Republicans, LaRose and fellow Republican Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green), who also sits on the Ballot Board, defended the language, saying passage of this amendment would lead to gerrymandering and would take power away from politicians to correct it.
But backers of the proposed amendment say gerrymandered maps are exactly what Ohio has now because politicians have made decisions to protect their power.
Citizens Not Politicians Attorney Don McTigue said the amendment’s goal is to prevent gerrymandering by taking the politicians out of the process of map drawing. Supporters say the proposed process would allow for a 15-member citizen panel, made up of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, who would use strict criteria to draw fair maps that would keep communities together and allow voters to pick their politicians instead of allowing politicians to pick their voters.
One of the key authors of the proposed amendment is former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican that was on the court when it repeatedly ruled the current maps unconstitutional.
Independent groups that monitor redistricting processes throughout the country have repeatedly said Ohio’s current maps are among the most gerrymandered in the nation.
Now, it’s up to the Ohio Supreme Court, which is dominated by Republicans