Ohio Voters File Motion Against Gerrymandered Congressional Map
Contact
Brooke Lillard
Lillard@redistrictingaction.org
Ohio Voters File Motion Against Gerrymandered Congressional Map
Washington, D.C. — In a submission today to the Ohio Supreme Court, voters supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund (NRAF) challenged the gerrymandered congressional map that was passed by the Republican-led Ohio Redistricting Commission as the result of a court-ordered redraw. Instead of drawing a compliant map, the Commission passed a gerrymandered congressional map on a party-line vote with only Republican support.
“It is an absolute disgrace that the Republican Commissioners passed a remedial congressional map that fails to adhere to the Ohio Supreme Court’s January order striking down the state’s first gerrymandered map and the reform enshrined in the state constitution at the heart of that decision,” said Marina Jenkins, the NRAF’s Director of Litigation and Policy. “The court provided explicit guidelines for the Commission to follow, and Democratic Commissioners made it clear that they were prepared to negotiate. Despite having all of the resources to do the work and draw a fair congressional map, the Republican Commissioners decided to repeat the same opaque, partisan process and again draw a gerrymandered map. It is clear Republicans cannot be trusted to adhere to the law and it is time for the court to step in and end these Republican partisan games.”
To read the full motion to enforce, click here.
The proposed Republican congressional map does the following:
Favors Politicians Over People: Similar to all other maps produced by Republican Commissioners, the latest congressional proposal is drawn to tilt the scales to favor the Republican Party. Despite the fact that Ohioans have voted just 54 percent Republican in the last decade, this new map would ensure Republicans occupy about 70-90 percent of the state’s congressional delegation, with 10 heavily Republican seats. Recent statewide elections demonstrate that this is beyond the pale. For example, in 2020, President Trump won 53.3 percent of the vote in Ohio and just 51.3 percent of the statewide vote in 2016. Gov. DeWine won with only 50.4 percent of the statewide vote in 2018. There are just two likely Democratic seats and one Democratic-leaning competitive seat. With two toss up seats, a party that has earned 46 percent of the state’s vote over the past decade could never hold more than one-third of the congressional delegation. This also stands in stark contrast to the fact that Sen. Sherrod Brown was re-elected with 53.4 percent of the vote in 2018.
Dilutes the Political Power of Communities of Color: The proposed map again undermines the political power of Ohio’s communities of color with districts that masterfully crack them apart or pack them into fewer districts – both of which result in diluting the strength of their votes. For example, Black and AAPI communities in both Franklin and Hamilton Counties are cracked apart between two districts each – a move that could have and should have been avoided by drawing more unified districts in each of those counties.
Unnecessarily Splits Up Diverse, Populous Communities: Instead of drawing maps that reflect the fact that the most populous areas of the state are in its cities and their suburbs, Republicans again drew a map that cracks and packs these areas to dilute Democratic performance. While this issue exists from Cleveland to Cincinnati, it is particularly pronounced in the parts of the state that saw some of the biggest increase in population across the last decade – Franklin, Delaware, and Hamilton Counties – all of which should have seen a corresponding increase in political representation to correspond with population growth. Instead, the Republican congressional map unnecessarily cracks apart the biggest metropolitan areas in the central and southwest parts of the state, preventing the most populous and diverse areas of the state from electing leaders of their choice.
One egregious example is Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati. The congressional map splits that county into one overwhelmingly Republican seat and another that is a toss-up, despite the fact that President Biden won Hamilton County by 16 percent. Another example is the congressional district that stretches from the Ohio Statehouse in downtown Columbus to rural Shelby County near the Indiana border.
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