COLUMBUS – Even while the future of the latest version of its state legislative map remains up in the air, Ohio’s top elections official has instructed county elections boards to prepare for a primary election on May 3.
UPDATE 3/1/22 4:14 a.m.: This article has been edited to include new developments.
However, those in charge of carrying out elections at the local level say they have “grave concerns” about being able to carry out a successful primary on that date, citing an already tight timeline due to still-unresolved state legislative maps.
In a letter Monday, leaders of the Ohio Association of Election Officials strongly urged Republican Senate President Matt Huffman to delay the primary.
They said many of Ohio’s 88 counties “no longer have the ability to run a successful” primary, “and more counties lose that ability each day.”
Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose ordered county boards Saturday to begin adding legislative candidates’ names to ballots, as instructed by the Legislature.
Huffman and House Speaker Robert Cupp sent a letter to LaRose on Feb. 24, repeating an order from state lawmakers to include legislative contests on the ballot.
That followed the release by the GOP members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission of a new plan giving Republicans a 54-45 Ohio House majority and an 18-15 Ohio Senate majority, by GOP calculations.
“The General Assembly has the legal authority to set the time, place, and manner of our elections, and they’ve made it clear that the state House and Senate contests will be placed on the May 3rd ballot,” LaRose said.
LaRose also submitted a waiver request to the Pentagon seeking more time to deliver ballots to military voters and their families serving overseas.
Voting rights and Democratic groups in Ohio have filed objections to this third set of Statehouse maps, even though it comes the closest yet of any GOP-drawn plan to matching Ohio’s political breakdown. Democrats disagreed with their calculations.
Two previous plans were invalidated as gerrymandered.
The panel’s action averted an in-person hearing before the state Supreme Court.
Individually and as a body, they faced contempt charges for defying a court-ordered Feb. 17 deadline for approving the maps.
The court continued the hearing Friday and prepared to hear another round of arguments beginning Monday on why the maps fail to meet constitutional muster.