NRAF Calls for Stronger Redistricting Reforms in Ohio as Republicans Ignore State Supreme Court
For Immediate Release
September 19, 2022
Contact
Jena Doyle
doyle@redistrictingaction.org
NRAF Calls for Stronger Redistricting Reforms in Ohio as Republicans Ignore State Supreme Court
Washington, D.C. — Today marks the deadline for the Republican-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission to pass a new congressional map that complies with the Ohio Constitution, as ordered by the Ohio Supreme Court. As of this hour, the Commission has failed to pass a map. This puts the Commission on track to fail to meet the Court’s deadline, following the Republican-led General Assembly’s inability to meet a previous court ordered deadline. A new, constitutionally-compliant map is required ahead of the 2024 election.
“Republicans in Ohio have openly robbed the state’s voters of elections that are free from partisan manipulation – elections that actually and accurately translate the will of the voter – and there must be consequences for this,” said Marina Jenkins, Director of Litigation and Policy for the NRAF. “At every turn in the redistricting cycle, Republicans refused to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities in good faith. Ultimately, they did all they could to ensure the map-drawing guardrails voted into law by 70% of Ohioans did not work as intended. They did not do this because the reforms or their purpose were unclear – they are. Simply put, the Republican leaders responsible for ensuring compliance with the new redistricting rules just chose to brazenly ignore the law, the court, and the people, because they didn’t want to relinquish control. They made the cynical decision to do whatever it takes to force unconstitutional maps onto the people while skirting any accountability for their actions. Now it is up to Ohio voters to prove them wrong by holding these same politicians to account at the ballot box and demanding stronger reforms.”
The Court’s order calling for a new map was the result of a lawsuit filed in March 2022 by Ohio voters supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF) in their ongoing effort to secure a fair congressional map in Ohio. In July, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down Ohio’s second congressional map as a partisan gerrymander. The map, passed by the Republican-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission in March, made only limited changes to the state’s original congressional map, which was passed by the Republicans in the state legislature in November 2021 and invalidated as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander by the Ohio Supreme Court on January 14.
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