Ohio Redistricting Commission Approves New State Legislative Maps Maintaining Republican Majority Majority Despite Antigerrymandering Reforms

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Republicans have passed new state legislative maps that should allow them to keep their majority vetoed in the Ohio House and Senate, doing so without Democratic votes, setting the maps that will be they will redraw in four years under the new redistricting Ohio rules.

The new districts would likely grant 62 of 99 seats in the House and 23 of 33 seats in the Senate to Republicans, Senate President Matt Huffman said Wednesday. Democrats agreed with the Senate projection, but said the maps actually create 65 Republican House districts, an analysis matched by Dave’s redistricting app, a popular website. Anything that exceeds the 60 seats in the House and the 20 seats in the Senate is a veto-proof super-majority.

(Click here for an in-depth view of House maps and here for Senate districts.) Here are the maps:

Five Republicans on the committee voted in favor of the maps, while two Democrats voted against them, approving them Thursday morning, shortly after the midnight deadline. If the commission obtained Democratic support, the maps would remain in effect for ten years under Ohio’s new redistricting rules. But because they didn’t, they will expire in four years.

Two Republicans who cast decisive votes Wednesday, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Gov. Mike DeWine, suggested the maps could be found unconstitutional. Ohio’s new rules require that maps be politically proportionate to recent voting results. They also say the lines should not favor any political party.

Districts would grant Republicans a significantly higher proportion of seats than recent statewide votes: in the last ten years, Republicans have won 54% of the vote in the 16 federal and non-judicial state races contested throughout the state over the last decade.

The official Republican statement accompanying the map argued that because Republicans have won 13 of the 16 state elections (81% of the election), it justified granting between 54% and 81% of the seats. In other words, they introduced the word “results” into the new constitutional language.

Several commissioners said they hoped the maps would finish quickly in court. The Ohio Supreme Court would hear any lawsuit, which is almost guaranteed. The court has a 4-3 division, with Republicans with a narrow majority, but Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor could have a key vote, given her legal history. The court has the ability to order changes to the maps or to reject them outright if they find them too flawed or politically disproportionate.

“Throughout this process I have heard that the committee could have produced a clearer constitutional bill. That’s not the bill we have in front of us, ”DeWine said.

DeWine later added, “I’m not judging the bill either way. That corresponds to a court ”.

LaRose said he voted to adopt the maps “with great discomfort.”

“I’m afraid we’ll be in this room again soon. This map has many shortcomings, but they pale in comparison to the shortcomings of this process, ”said LaRose.

But Huffman portrayed the maps as a relative compromise. He said he gave several Republican seats compared to a previous Republican plan, and incorporated public comment. He issued a statement after the meeting suggesting Democrats opposed the maps because of pressure from outside redistricting groups aligned with Democrats.

“This brings us much closer to the democratic plan that was presented,” Huffman said.

The two Democrats on the redistricting committee bitterly complained about the process and the resulting maps. The house’s minority leader, Emilia Sykes, and her father, Senator Vernon Sykes, said they had rejected the new maps on Tuesday, when they were floated in private. Democrats proposed their own plans, the most recent of which would likely have given Republicans 57 seats in the House and 20 seats in the Senate.

“I am amazed at the arrogance of the supermajority that has such insensitive disregard for people today,” Vernon Sykes said.

“I think it’s offensive and clearly wrong to move forward on this map … to present something that flies so arrogantly in the face of what people, our voters, were asking of us, not once, but twice,” Emilia Sykes said.

Republican observers had expected the Ohio Redistricting Commission to approve four-year maps, without waiting for legislative leaders to make significant concessions to reach an agreement with Democrats. But in recent days, negotiations have taken place behind the scenes between two Republicans on the commission – state auditor Keith Faber and LaRose – and the Sykeses. DeWine entered the process on Wednesday and pushed for a bipartisan deal, which he said would be worth missing the deadline if necessary.

Voting rights groups quickly issued statements about the new maps and the process that led them.

“The Ohio Redistricting Commission missed an important opportunity to restore faith in our democratic republic,” said Jen Miller of the Ohio Women’s Voting League. “The people of Ohio approved a redistricting reform in 2015 and 2018 with more than 70% of the vote and then came out en masse calling for a bipartisan and transparent process that would lead to fair and representative maps. Instead, Ohioians got more of the same: a break from the bipartisan process and maps that serve the short-sighted interests of political parties, not voters. Those in Ohio deserve better. “

The Equal Districts Coalition, an umbrella group of mostly progressive, Democrat-affiliated organizations, issued a statement condemning the maps.

“Several organizations are preparing to take the obviously unconstitutional legislative maps to court, as it is clear that Republican commissioners did not attempt to meet Ohio’s constitutional requirements,” the group’s statement states.

Voters approved the new process through constitutional amendments in 2015 and 2018 as an attempt to combat political manipulation and encourage more bipartisan cooperation in drafting legislative maps. This is the first year it has been used and the process has not gone smoothly, which was also complained about by several Republican commissioners during Wednesday’s meeting.

First, state officials did not receive U.S. census data until Aug. 11, nearly five months late due to federal government delays related to the coronavirus. Then, Republican legislative leaders failed by Sept. 1 to introduce a map for public consideration. They also missed the deadline to approve the map on September 1, although the new system sets an extended deadline on September 15 for this scenario.

When Republicans introduced a map last week, they unveiled a proposal that would likely grant them even more seats (about 67 of the 99 seats in the House and 25 of the 33 seats in the Senate) a little more than they have now. .

LaRose accused some members of the commission of not acting in good faith during the negotiations. He didn’t want to say who he was referring to afterwards.

Faber said he plans to propose changes to the system. He complained that the non-legislative members of the commission did not have the same resources, which led lawmakers to control the process. He also said he felt an agreement would have been more possible if legislative leaders had focused on finding solutions rather than maintaining their negotiating positions.

“It simply came to our notice then. To say it went as I anticipated would not only be an exaggeration but a big disappointment, ”he said.

Faber was less critical of the maps themselves, though he said he expected a bipartisan deal. He noted that they created about 25 competitive districts, unlike other less competitive proposals.

“When you draw maps, you have to share the disappointment,” Faber said. “I will tell you that there is some disappointment about the division of the counties, especially in northwest Ohio. However, the reality is that, compared to some other maps, we have had the choice, this map is not so bad. It’s not that good either. “