Supporters of a fall redistricting change in Ohio vowed to take swift legal action Friday after the state elections board approved language describing their proposal to voters they condemned as inaccurate, underhanded and manipulative.
Despite objections from counsel for Citizens Not Politicians, the Republican-controlled panel approved language describing the proposed 15-member citizen redistricting panel as “not elected by or de-selectable by the voters of the state.”
The amendment’s restrictions on lobbyists and politicians influencing map drawing are described as a restriction on citizens’ right to free speech. And in a particularly notable last-minute change, the amendment, which is specifically designed to prevent partisan gerrymandering, is described as explicitly requiring such gerrymandering.
“I keep thinking about the book ‘1984,’” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio and a member of the large bipartisan coalition supporting Issue 1, referring to George Orwell’s famous novel. “You know, ‘War is peace, freedom is slavery.’ The way the election language plays with the word ‘gerrymandering’ to give it a meaning it doesn’t have is breathtaking and makes you question the integrity of elected officials.”
Republican Senator Theresa Gavarone, who proposed the term “gerrymandering,” said that drawing electoral boundaries to influence election results based on voters’ party affiliation fits the dictionary definition.
Jen Miller, executive director of the Ohio League of Women Voters and a spokeswoman for the campaign, said the lawsuit will be filed in the Ohio Supreme Court next week.
“We will point out that this is just another example of why we need to keep politicians out of the redistricting process,” she told reporters after the vote. “They break the law time and time again. They insult voters and do everything they can to keep themselves and their cronies in power.”
The wording of the ballot describes Issue 1 as repealing “constitutional protections against gerrymandering approved by nearly three-quarters of Ohio’s electors in 2015 and 2018.” While that is technically true, it is precisely this system that led to legislative and congressional districts in seven consecutive districts that have been ruled unconstitutionally gerrymandered in favor of Republicans by the courts.
Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who heads the elections committee, said he and his staff worked carefully to ensure the ballot language they submitted accurately reflected Citizens Not Politicians’ extensive proposal, which runs to more than 7,000 words. He defended his 900-word summary by saying it was far more thorough than the one submitted by the redistricting campaign, which included just five bullet points.
“The path that led you to the current commission is pretty straightforward,” LaRose said. “(The proposed process) is a little bit like a Rube Goldberg trick that involves a lot of twists and turns.” He said it was a complex process that had not been adequately explained.
McTigue said voters who wish will have the opportunity to read the proposed amendment in full, either in newspapers, where it must be published, or on the wall at their polling place.
He said LaRose’s lengthy summary was designed to discourage support for Item 1. He said the committee’s language closely follows the 2015 and 2018 redistricting amendments that the elections board adopted without objection.
“I would describe the language as a farce of Shakespearean proportions,” he said.
Later in the meeting, LaRose questioned McTigue about how many times the Citizens Not Politicians campaign’s application had to be submitted before it was approved – a separate process controlled by his Republican colleague Dave Yost, the state’s attorney general. McTigue, a Democrat, said three times, twice to fix what Yost called “critical errors or omissions” and a third time to correct a typo.
LaRose seemed to suggest that the committee’s history suggested its wording was not always perfect. “You protest too much, I think,” he joked.
The amendment, pushed by a strong bipartisan coalition, would replace the current redistricting commission — made up of four representatives, the governor, the auditor and the secretary of state — with a 15-member, citizen-led commission made up of Republicans, Democrats and independents. The members would be selected by retired judges.
As a member of the existing commission, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has expressed concerns about the system, but he has opposed the fall proposal and said he would pursue an alternative in January if voters approve it.
Defenders of the Ohio Redistricting Commission’s existing system point to the panel’s unanimous vote last fall on a set of maps for the Ohio House and Senate that are valid through 2030. But Democrats agreed to that deal – and the lawsuits were dropped – even though they knew the districts would be up for grabs in 2024.
