History of Gerrymandering in Ohio
For 45 years, the LWV has been involved in efforts to reform the redistricting process. In 2015, Ohio voters passed a bipartisan redistricting plan by an overwhelming 71.5 percent. Then in 2018, Issue 1, a constitutional amendment outlining a redistricting reform process, passed in all 88 counties with 74.85 percent of the vote.
Despite the will of the people, a constitutional amendment, thousands of phone calls, postcards and yard signs, the Ohio Redistricting Commission (ORC), controlled by Republicans, presented five maps, each of which was rejected and found unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court. Contemptuously, at the eleventh hour and just ahead of the deadline, the ORC adopted one of the previously rejected maps for the 2022 elections.
Now, no matter which candidates most Ohioans vote for, Ohio’s gerrymandered congressional districts will likely result in an Ohio congressional delegation of 12 Republicans and four Democrats in the 2022 elections, and if allowed to stand, for the next decade. By contrast, under any of the top ten congressional plans that were generated through the citizen competition, the balance of Ohio’s congressional delegation would have depended on the preferences of the voters.
The partisan imbalance was created by splitting up counties and municipalities in a way that packed Democratic voters into four congressional districts and provided comfortable Republican majorities in the remaining 12 districts. This was accomplished by splitting every major Ohio city and 27 counties into different districts.
Thus, the battle for democracy to make every vote count continues.