COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court is poised to review the fourth set of boundaries for new state legislative districts.
UPDATE 3/29/22 11:00 a.m.: This article has been edited to include new developments
The likelihood of the court approving those maps is uncertain after the state’s political mapmaking body created them from a previously rejected set of maps.
The GOP-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission voted 4-3 along mostly partisan lines late Monday to revive a set of slightly altered maps already rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this month.
In doing so, the commission set aside the efforts of two independent mapmakers paid $450 an hour over four days to draw new maps in work viewed step-by-step online.
Democrats say the latest plan is nearly identical to the plan overturned by the court on March 16.
“It is abundantly clear that Republicans lack the political will, not the ability, to adopt constitutional maps,” said House Minority Leader and commission member Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington).
Russo and her fellow Democrats say the map adopted Monday contains 17 Democratic-leaning tossup districts in the House and six in the Senate with no Republican districts considered competitive.
Mapmakers are in a race against the clock with Ohio’s May 3 primary drawing ever closer.