Ohio Voters Challenge Gerrymandered Congressional Map with Support of the National Redistricting Action Fund

For Immediate Release:

November 22, 2021

Contact:

Brooke Lillard

lillard@redistrictingaction.org

Ohio Voters Challenge Gerrymandered Congressional Map with Support of the National Redistricting Action Fund

Washington, D.C. — In a submission today to the Ohio Supreme Court, 12 Ohio voters, supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF), filed a lawsuit asking the court to strike down the newly-enacted congressional map as a partisan gerrymander in violation of Article XIX of the Ohio Constitution, prohibiting partisan gerrymandering.  

“That Ohio’s new congressional map, signed by Governor DeWine on Saturday, is a partisan gerrymander in violation of the state constitution is quite clear,” said Marina Jenkins, Director of Litigation and Policy for the NRAF. “This map comes directly on the heels of an overwhelming statement of Ohio’s voters that they want fair redistricting — with 75 percent of Ohioans supporting the 2018 reform — yet it is even more gerrymandered than the egregious 2011 map. Ohioans deserve a new, fair congressional map that accurately reflects the people and competitive nature of the state. This is not it.”  

The complaint filed today establishes how the congressional map unduly favors the Republican Party and unnecessarily splits municipal lines, particularly in urban communities and their surrounding suburbs, in violation of Article XIX of the Ohio Constitution. In urban areas of southwest and northeast Ohio, for example, the map unduly splits counties and municipalities for no discernable reason other than minimizing Democratic voting power. These district lines recklessly crack and pack communities of color, diluting their voting power. The result is a map in which at least 80 percent of the districts would be safe Republican seats, even though Ohio is a competitive state for both parties.

The map violates both the letter and the spirit of the state’s 2018 reform, which demands a fair, bipartisan, and transparent map-drawing process. The Republican-led legislature and Ohio Redistricting Commission failed to meet constitutional deadlines to propose a bipartisan map. Instead, Republican legislators drew the final gerrymandered map behind closed doors, and meaningful public engagement was severely curbed. 

“The gerrymandered map and the process that led up to it demonstrate a clear disregard for the criteria in the Ohio Constitution,” continued Jenkins. “This is not a fair map, and the National Redistricting Action Fund is proud to support the Ohio voters challenging it in court.”

The complaint can be found here.

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About NRAF

The National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF) is the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. The mission of the NRAF is to harness the power of people and the courts to dismantle unfair electoral maps and create a redistricting system based on democratic values. By helping to create more just and representative electoral districts across the country, we also hope to restore the public’s faith in a true representative democracy.