Ohio’s gerrymandering opponents call LaRose’s election bill misleading and unconstitutional • Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office has drafted a ballot bill for the Ohio Ballot Board to consider Friday. Supporters of an amendment against gerrymandering say it is misleading and unconstitutional. The board will decide the text of the proposed amendments that voters will actually see on their ballots when they cast their votes.

The anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment that will be put before Ohio voters in November would, according to text written by LaRose’s office, “eliminate the long-standing ability of Ohioans to hold their representatives accountable for creating fair districts for the state’s legislature and congress.”

Citizens Not Politicians, a group that launched the ballot initiative, has collected over 535,000 signatures from Ohio voters needed to put the bill to a vote. They have also proposed their own wording for the ballot, which would exclude politicians from the redistricting process and establish a citizens’ panel instead.

The group is proposing a redistricting amendment that would replace the politician-led redistricting commission with a citizen-led commission made up of Republicans, Democrats and independents. Currently, Ohio’s Secretary of State is one of the politicians who sit on the redistricting commission, along with the governor, Ohio’s auditor, two representatives from the majority party and two representatives from the minority party.

In the language drafted by the Secretary of State’s office, the proposed heading states that the purpose of the amendment is to “create an appointed redistricting commission, which shall not be elected by or removable from office by the voters of the State.”

In addition, the bill states that its purpose is to “repeal the constitutional protections against gerrymandering that nearly three-quarters of Ohio’s electors approved in the 2015 and 2018 statewide elections.”

Its supporters say that the amendment is actually intended to protect voters from gerrymandering. Politicians who benefit from this process should be removed from office and prohibited from further gerrymandering.

After voters approved the 2015 and 2018 reforms, Republican politicians on the Ohio Redistricting Commission, including Ohio Secretary of State LaRose, repeatedly voted for Statehouse and U.S. Congressional district maps that a bipartisan majority of the Ohio Supreme Court ruled were unconstitutional gerrymandering. Yet Ohio voters were forced to use the maps because politicians refused to create maps that reflected Ohioans’ voting preferences.

The Ohio Secretary of State’s office further states in its proposed language that the new amendment would also “limit the right of Ohio citizens to freely express their opinions to members of the Commission or Commission staff regarding the redistricting process or proposed redistricting plans.”

It states that the amendment would “prohibit any citizen from bringing an action challenging a redistricting plan in any court unless the action challenges the proportionality principle applied by the Commission, and then only in the Supreme Court of Ohio.” It also says that the amendment would impose new “taxpayer-funded costs,” including “an unlimited amount for legal fees incurred by the Commission in any related litigation.”

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recently publicly opposed the ballot bill because of its emphasis on proportionality, claiming that the bill could not possibly work in its current form. He said that whether or not it passes in November, he is considering approaching lawmakers to adjust Iowa’s redistricting process for Ohio. Iowa’s process leaves the final decision on maps to lawmakers.

The proposed constitutional amendment, written by Citizens Not Politicians, would create a 15-member redistricting commission made up of citizens, replacing the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which currently consists entirely of elected officials.

The language proposed by Citizens Not Politicians for the Board of Elections states that the proposed change “would require the Commission to consist of 15 members who have demonstrated that there are no disqualifying conflicts of interest and who are capable of conducting the redistricting process impartially, with integrity and fairness.”

The amendment would “provide that each redistricting plan contains single-member constituencies that are geographically contiguous, comply with federal law, broadly reflect the partisan preferences of Ohio voters throughout the state, and preserve communities,” according to language proposed by Citizens Not Politicians.

The current Ohio Redistricting Commission, made up of politicians, has produced six different statehouse maps and two congressional district maps in its two years of work. Five of the statehouse maps were ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court, and none of the congressional districts passed constitutional test, according to the state’s highest court. The second congressional district map remains the state’s congressional district map, although the state Supreme Court found it to be overly partisan.

The redistricting commission was criticized for ignoring hours of testimony from hundreds of Ohioans and numerous maps proposed by citizens and groups in favor of maps drawn up by legislative staff. It also disregarded the authority of the Ohio Supreme Court when it was ordered to redraw the maps by a deadline and paid to use independent cartographers coordinated by the court.