COLUMBUS – Will the third time be the charm for the panel crafting Ohio’s Statehouse district maps?
The state Supreme Court Monday rejected as gerrymandered a second set of Ohio that retained strong Republican majorities and sent the members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission back for a third try.
In another 4-3 decision Monday, the court ruled the panel’s redrawn maps of Ohio House and Senate districts still violate a 2015 constitutional amendment that mandates attempts at avoiding partisan favoritism and at proportionally distributing districts to reflect Ohio’s 54% Republican, 46% Democratic split.
“Once again, we commend the Ohio Supreme Court for standing with voters and rejecting partisan gerrymandering. For our representative democracy to work, Ohioans need districts that are fair and responsive to voters, rather than rigged for political interests,” said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, the lead plaintiff in the case.
The justices gave the bipartisan commission 10 days to pass a constitutional map.
The court on Jan. 12 rejected maps from the commission that favored Republicans in at least 62 of the 99 House districts and 23 of the 33 Senate districts. The new maps favor Republicans in the House 57-42 and in the Senate 20-13, according to the commission.
“The revised plan does not attempt to closely correspond to that constitutionally defined ratio. Our instruction to the commission is—simply—to comply with the Constitution,” the opinion read.
Justices Sharon Kennedy and Patrick DeWine wrote a dissenting opinion, claiming that the commission satisfied the requirement of the Jan. 12 Court decision by adding districts that “favor” Democrat but “now decrees that the commission must draw districts that favor Democrats to a degree of the majority’s liking.”
The new map must be filed with the Ohio Secretary of State’s office by Feb. 17 and submitted to the court by 9:00 a.m. on Feb. 18.