Ohio voters will decide in November whether to reform the decennial redistricting process for the third time in just nine years.
Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment to create a citizen-led redistricting commission charged with redrawing political boundaries every decade submitted 535,005 valid signatures from state voters, Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s (R) office said Tuesday, about 120,000 more than required.
“This certification is a historic step towards restoring fairness in Ohio’s electoral process,” retired state Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor said in a statement. “With this amendment on the ballot, Ohioans have the chance to reclaim their power from the self-serving politicians who want to stay in power long past their expiration date while ignoring the needs of the voters.”
O’Connor, a Republican who retired from the bench in 2022, helped draft the proposed amendment. As a justice on the court, she authored the opinion striking down a map of district lines that heavily favored Republicans.
The proposed amendment would create a 15-member panel of citizens charged with drawing new boundary lines, including five Republicans, five Democrats and five registered independents. Politicians, political consultants and lobbyists would be barred from serving on the panel.
The panel would replace the state’s existing Redistricting Commission, which includes the governor, the state auditor, the secretary of state, and representatives of the House and Senate majority and minority parties.
Because Republicans hold all of Ohio’s state-level elected offices, Republicans made up five of the seven seats on the existing panel. The GOP used that majority to draw maps that essentially locked in their majorities in the state legislature, and their ability to control at least 10 of Ohio’s 15 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Two other seats, currently held by Democrats, could elect Republican members as well.
Ohio voters created the existing Redistricting Commission in 2015 in an effort to take politics out of the remapping process. A subsequent amendment approved in 2018 gave the commission power to draw new boundary lines if state legislators could not come to agreement on a new set of legislative and congressional maps.
But if the commission could not agree on map lines that won support from members of the minority party, it could adopt maps that would be in effect for four years — effectively allowing the majority at least a temporary reprieve to maintain their power. In practice, that meant Republicans maintained control of the remapping process, and their hold on the legislature and congressional seats.
The state Supreme Court ruled last year, after O’Connor had been replaced by another Republican justice, in favor of Republican-drawn lines.
If voters approve the new independent commission, Ohio would join eight other states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, New York and Washington — that draw new district lines in largely the same way. Redistricting in Hawaii, New Jersey and Virginia is controlled by a commission of politicians.
Ohio is one of four states, along with Connecticut, Indiana and Maine, where commissions act as backups if the legislature cannot agree on a map.
The proposed amendment is the only one set to appear on Ohio’s ballot this year, and the only initiative related to redistricting in the country this year.