NRAF Files Fourth Objection to GOP Maps
Contact
Brooke Lillard
Lillard@redistrictingaction.org
NRAF Files Motion for Ohio Supreme Court to Schedule Contempt Hearing
Washington, D.C. – Today, petitioners supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF) submitted a motion asking the Ohio State Supreme Court to order that the Ohio Redistricting Commission, and all of its members, show cause as to why they should not be held in contempt of court for failing to comply with the Court’s orders relating to the third redraw of the state’s legislative maps. Rather than adopting fair maps drawn by independent map drawers, the Republican-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission passed a set of state legislative maps – the Commission’s fourth try – that are 99.7 percent identical to the most recent (third) set of state legislative maps, which were struck down as partisan gerrymanders that violated the state constitution by the Ohio Supreme Court.
The motion outlines how at the eleventh hour, as the independent map-drawing work was being completed, Senate President Huffman hijacked the process and announced that his partisan map-drawers—the same employees of the Republican caucuses who drew the first three unconstitutional maps—would be drafting maps instead. Huffman later admitted to reporters that he hatched this plan several days beforehand.
“This last action by Republicans on the Commission would be almost funny if it were not so consequential and nakedly partisan,” said Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States. “Ohio runs the risk of becoming a punchline to a bad joke. Some Republicans in Ohio are bound and determined to ignore the state Supreme Court, the Ohio Constitution, independent map drawers, and electoral fairness to try to hold on to illegitimate electoral advantage. This farce must end. It is time for responsible Republicans, like Governor DeWine, to force compliance with the law and finally serve the people of the state.”
A link to the objection can be found here.
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