Senate approves deal on new Ohio congressional redistricting plan

By Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch, and staff reports

COLUMBUS – The Ohio House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a plan to reform the process for drawing Ohio’s congressional districts and eliminate — or, at least, reduce — the gerrymandering that some say has contributed to partisan divide and gridlock on Capitol Hill.

The Senate approved the measure unanimously Monday night. Lawmakers must get it to the office of Secretary of State Jon Husted by the end of the day tomorrow in order to make it on the May ballot.

Republicans, Democrats and a coalition of redistricting reform advocates have reached a deal to put a proposal on the May ballot aimed at curtailing partisan gerrymandering of Ohio’s congressional map.

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Unlike the current redistricting process, which has almost no rules other than requirements for district population and avoiding conflict with the federal Voting Rights Act, the proposal would require 50 percent of the minority party in each chamber to approve a map for 10 years and would limit how often counties can be split into multiple congressional seats.

Democrats and members of the Fair Districts = Fair Elections coalition, which has already collected about 200,000 of the 306,000 signatures needed for a November redistricting ballot issue, have been locked in talks with majority Republicans for about two weeks.

Under the current map, drawn by Republicans in 2011, the GOP has held a firm grip on 12 of 16 congressional districts, even in years when they got less than 55 percent of the statewide congressional vote. The districts are heavily gerrymandered, largely non-competitive, and are meant to ensure Republicans control the bulk of the Ohio delegation.

The big issues holding up a deal were county splits, prohibiting the drawing of districts specifically to benefit one party over the other, and ensuring that the majority could not pass a map without bipartisan support.

The agreement reportedly allows for the state’s five largest counties to be split into three congressional districts, but only if a bipartisan deal is reached. If there is no bipartisan deal and the majority moves forward with a map on its own, then stricter criteria kick in, making it more difficult to unnecessarily split counties and draw partisan seats.

A majority-only map also would be subject to a potential governor’s veto and a potential statewide ballot referendum to reject the map.

Under the compromise approved by the Senate, a 10-year map requires a three-fifths vote in each chamber of the General Assembly, including 50 percent of the minority party’s vote.

If there is no agreement, the process moves to the bipartisan Redistricting Commission where any map drawn by the seven-member panel requires two minority votes to pass.

If that effort fails, the map drawing responsibility moves back to the legislature where a 10-year map requires a one-third vote of the minority party and, if the vote fails, a simple majority can pass a map that would remain in effect for only four years and cannot be drawn to unduly favor or disfavor one political party.