MANSFIELD – Ohio voters will have the chance to fight back against gerrymandering by voting on a new congressional district drawing process on the May ballot.
Voters will see the Congressional Redistricting Amendment (Issue 1) on the May 8 ballot, which would reform the process for drawing congressional districts when they are redrawn again in 2021. Voting for the issue would immediately reform the drawing process, not the districts themselves.
According to Ohio Secretary of State John Husted, the proposed amendment would end the current partisan process for drawing congressional districts by a simple majority vote of the General Assembly.
“This amendment requires a map be adopted with significant bipartisan support, with the goals of keeping local communities together and having district boundaries that are more compact,” Husted said. “If bipartisan support cannot be obtained, strict anti-gerrymandering criteria would apply when adopting a congressional map.”
Currently, congressional districts are drawn according to whichever political party holds the majority in the Ohio legislature. The amendment would require support from both parties before a new congressional district is drawn and approved.
Supporters of Issue 1 say the amendment will create a fair, bipartisan, and transparent process when drawing congressional districts that will make politicians more accountable to the voters.
Detractors argue the current process for drawing new congressional districts is adequate; although allowing for one-party control, the voters can hold their state legislators responsible by voting against them if they believe those legislators are too partisan.
The process was set in motion on Feb. 7 when Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof signed the resolution to reform the congressional district drawing process after weeks of negotiations between party leaders. The resolution passed the Ohio Senate with a unanimous, bipartisan vote and passed the Ohio House with strong support.
Obhof co-sponsored the resolution and was one of the lead negotiators for the eventual compromise. He discussed the process with Richland Source on Feb. 12.
“This is one of the most contentious things I’ve worked on since I’ve been in the legislature,” Obhof said.
Congressional districts are redrawn every 10 years in Ohio. The current map was created and passed in 2010.
Part of the thought behind the proposed redistricting amendment is wanting to keep communities together. For example, in Richland County, half the county was represented by Rep. Pat Tiberi in District 12 until his resignation on Jan. 15, and the other half represented by Rep. Bob Gibbs.
Obhof explained that under the current rules, there are almost no restrictions on drawing congressional districts.
“We’ve put in some restrictions on how many times you can divide counties, and specifically required the districts to be compact,” Obhof said. “We also put provisions in that require areas within a county to be contiguous.”
In addition to the new rules, in order for the legislature to pass a new map, half of the minority party would need to vote in favor of the new districts. The next map will be drawn in 2021.
“This would ensure the next time the map is drawn you have bipartisan buy-in and fewer divisions of local governments,” Obhof said.
The need for a new process has been apparent for the last 20 years. At least three ballot issues have been proposed in the past, with all three failing miserably.
“It’s been an ugly fight every couple years,” Obhof said. “I think everyone agrees you should try to keep communities whole and you should try to get bipartisan buy-in, but what you tend to see in the actual ballot issues is one party trying to favor itself over the other.”
Issue 1 on the May ballot was created in part as an attempt to head off two competing ballot issues from Republicans and Democrats wanting to change the redistricting process. Obhof worked with Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko, Sen. Vernon Sykes and Sen. Matt Huffman over the course of several weeks to come to an agreement.
The process was not always a smooth one. Several times, Obhof said, it seemed the legislation was dead in the water. But the parties refused to give up.
“If you actually want to get it done, sooner or later you have to stop talking about it and put pen to paper and get a starting point,” Obhof said. “We decided we didn’t want to be the next in a long list of people to get close to finishing the job but not actually get it done.”
Passage of the congressional redistricting reform was widely hailed as a historic and significant bipartisan achievement for the state legislature on behalf of Ohio voters. It’s a lesson Obhof hopes ripples throughout higher levels of government.
“Regardless of what party you’re in, and regardless of your position on the issue, if you’re all acting in good faith and you actually want to get something done, maybe you’ll get it done and maybe you won’t, but you can always try a second time,” he said.
“There’s always going to be some things we don’t agree on. Sometimes we disagree about how you get there, but for the most part I think the underlying goals are the same.”
