Ohio Citizen Action has been working on redistricting reform since 1999.  We believe that the power to draw Ohio’s legislative and congressional district boundaries should be vested in a commission which ideally would be independent and nonpartisan or, at a minimum, bipartisan.  In addition to satisfying certain traditional reapportionment requirements such as contiguity, population equality, and protection of minority rights, redistricting should take competitiveness into account.

Recent News

Feb 15: Ohio House holds redistricting reform hearing on Wednesday

On Wednesday, February 17, the Ohio House Elections and Ethics Committee is holding a second hearing on House Joint Resolution 15.

Key Points on House Joint Resolution 15, introduced by Representative Letson (D-Warren) as introduced in 2010:
The proposed amendment would create a public competition to draw state legislative district lines according to a predetermined formula, emphasizing statewide partisan balance, with a lesser role for competition, and a lesser role still for preservation of municipal boundaries and a particular measure of compactness. Though Ohio’s present redistricting commission would still exist, it would essentially become an administrative body, with no discretion to depart from the competition formula. Justin Levitt, Brennan Center for Justice.
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Key points on Senate Joing Resolution 5, introduced by Senator Husted (R-Kettering) as passed by the Ohio Senate in 2009:
The proposed amendment would expand Ohio’s present redistricting commission by two incumbents, and place congressional districts as well as state legislative districts under the commission’s authority. The commission would emphasize preservation of whole political units and, to a lesser extent, competition between the major parties. Justin Levitt, Brennan Center for Justice.
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Ohio Citizen Action and the League of Women Voters of Ohio are hosting an Ohio Redistricting Forum on March 1, 2010.
For more details please click here.

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Feb 8: Editorial: Keep the momentum
Legislative cooperation could move two more important state measures

COLUMBUS -- "For redistricting, House Democrats and Senate Republicans have separate bills with somewhat different approaches to taking the politics out of the task, but they could be reconciled by keeping the best features of each. The Senate plan, passed in September, would create a bipartisan board to approve maps for both congressional and state legislative districts. It would require at least two votes of minority-party members to approve a plan. That makes it an improvement over the current system, in which the three-member Apportionment Board, controlled by whichever party holds at least two of three designated statewide offices, can dictate state legislative district that favors the dominant party. A state legislative majority can similarly slant the drawing of congressional districts. The House plan introduces another valuable element: allowing the public to submit proposed maps for districts, which would be graded on four criteria aimed at producing competitive districts and fair representation of the parties and avoiding splitting municipalities between districts. A similar demonstration project sponsored by the Ohio League of Women Voters recently produced impressive results," The Columbus Dispatch.

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Feb 5: Blog: Two district-drawing plans have merit

COLUMBUS -- "...A way has been found to take the power out of the politicians’ hands, to simply eliminate political motivation in map-drawing. Last year, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner sponsored a test contest promoted by a coalition of activists, including the League of Women Voters and Ohio Citizen Action. Entrants were asked to draw congressional districts for the last decade, under certain rules, using population stats from the 2000 Census. The results were remarkable," Martin Gottlieb, Dayton Daily News.

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Feb 4: Letson proposes public contest to redraw districts
Another legislator also is proposing a revamped redistricting plan

COLUMBUS -- "Democrats in the Ohio House are backing a new plan for redrawing the state’s legislative districts that they say will remove partisanship from the process. The resolution, offered by Rep. Tom Letson of Warren, D-64th, calls for a public competition to draw state legislative district lines and a nonpartisan arbiter to confirm the results. 'The House reapportionment reform plan takes the politics out of reapportionment by providing specific criteria as to how district lines are to be drawn,' Letson said during a Monday press conference at the Statehouse. 'This, in turn, makes each district more competitive,'" Mark Kovac, Youngstown Vindicator.

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Feb 3: Parties fight over district redrawing

COLUMBUS -- "'You remember 8th grade social studies? Remember gerrymandering? That's the best way to describe it to citizens,' said Catherine Turcer with Ohio Citizen Action. Turcer wants to see Ohio eliminate gerrymandering once and for all. She supports a new bill that would create a fair way to draw legislative lines. 'The problem is you can't ever really take the politics out of things,' Turcer said. 'You might as well just own it and be practical and say, 'okay, what we want to do is create criteria that is sensible,'"Jim Heath, ONNtv.com.

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Feb 2: Ohio House Democrats have plan to redistrict
Idea would let public have a say in layout of legislative maps

COLUMBUS -- "Supporters of finding new, less political ways of drawing legislative and congressional districts say it's time for Democrats and Republicans to marry their ideas. House Democrats introduced a plan yesterday that would allow the public to submit legislative maps, which then would be graded based on four criteria, including whether districts could produce a fair number of representatives from each party, whether districts are competitive, and the number of times municipalities are divided. Senate Republicans passed a plan in September that would create a bipartisan board that would need a supermajority vote to approve maps for both legislative and congressional districts," Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch.

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Jan 25: Martin Gottlieb: Last chance to fix rules that shut out centrists

DAYTON -- "From Catherine Turcer, of Ohio Citizen Action, a consumer advocacy group, on the case for changing a system that creates too many legislative districts that are hopelessly lopsided in favor of one political party: 'Competitive districts tend to create more centrists. And wouldn’t that be nice to have in government, because there’s something to be said for consensus-building?' Here, in other words, is a chance to actually do something about partisanship," Martin Gottlieb, Dayton Daily News.

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Jan 25: This year's vote to decide who draws the map for congressional districts

WASHINGTON DC -- "Ohio has 18 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Yet even in what is expected to be a volatile political year, more than a dozen shouldn't have a care in the world about the November elections. As most Ohio congressional incumbents cruise to re-election this year, they can thank the relatively safe congressional districts drawn up in 2002 by the Republicans when they controlled the governor's office, the Ohio Senate and the Ohio House. And Ohioans are on the verge of seeing the same much-criticized process locked in again for the next 10 years," Jack Torry, The Columbus Dispatch.

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Jan 20: Editorial: Waiting for Democrats
The state could use an improved way for drawing legislative districts. Will the Ohio House deliver on the necessary constitutional amendment?


AKRON -- "Voters often complain about unresponsive government. Then why not give them the opportunity to elect representatives more likely to cross party lines to reach sensible compromises? That's the essential goal of a proposed constitutional amendment that would improve the way legislative and congressional districts are redrawn in Ohio. The trouble is, just two weeks remain before a Feb. 3 deadline to place an amendment on the May 4 ballot. At this point, the promising plan passed in September by the Republican-controlled Senate remains stalled in the Ohio House," The Columbus Dispatch.

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Jan 19: Editorial: Democrats must act now on redistricting

COLUMBUS -- "The November ballot will include races for governor, secretary of state and auditor. Whichever party wins two of those races would control map-drawing completely under current rules. So, whichever party is looking strongest by summer or fall is unlikely to support reform. And without support from both parties, reform has been rejected by voters in the past. And after November, the actual redistricting process will be imminent. It starts after the 2010 federal Census is done.... Citizens and organizations that are against a system that gives one party the spoils in each decade — and results in, for example, districts that make a near circle around unwanted voters — need to be contacting legislators of both parties," Dayton Daily News.

How redistricting is done in Ohio
Justin Levitt, Brennan Center for Justice.

Midwest Democracy Network on Redistricting

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Jan 13: Debate over redistricting: Hearing today on plan to change how Ohio draws new boundaries

CUYAHOGA COUNTY-- "A proposal to change the way Ohio draws legislative districts every 10 years is set for a hearing in the House of Representatives today after already passing in the Senate. The move comes just as many were saying a legislative mapping change was not likely to occur for another 10 years, thanks to a gridlock in state politics.... In 2009, the League of Women Voters, Ohio Citizen Action, Brunner's office and other groups and individuals sponsored a competition to come up with a better way to draw legislative districts. In her column, Brunner said the state should use the competition's criteria - emphasizing compact but competitive districts - to determine the best way to redraw the lines," Justin McIntosh, Marietta Times.

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Jan 11: Letter to the Editor: How state draws its lines needs to change
Redistricting: Map competition would make districts better reflect communities

COLUMBUS -- "If our state legislature can come to an agreement to place the issue before the voters in May, Ohioans have a historic opportunity to change their government.... We have seen with our state's election system that how we structure our government process has much to do with fairness, participation and citizen trust. Changing the way we draw the boundaries of our state legislative districts will go a long way toward creating a governmental system that fosters this. There is a way to draw legislative districts that protects rather than splits the common interests of communities and balances those interests within them," Jennifer Brunner, The Columbus Dispatch.

Letter to the Editor: How state draws its lines needs to change
Redistricting: Bipartisan board would ensure end to gerrymandering
Jon Husted, The Columbus Dispatch.

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Jan 11: Ohio lawmakers face deadline in getting key goals on May 4 ballot

COLUMBUS -- "The deadline for putting proposed constitutional amendments on the May 4 ballot is Feb. 3, just 23 days after legislators get back to work on Tuesday, Jan. 12.... Redistricting reform, [however], remains a work in progress. The Republican-controlled-Senate has approved a plan, but the Democratic-controlled House hasn’t acted. Will it? 'We have a lot of work to do between now and then (Feb. 3),' said Keary McCarthy, spokesman for Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood," William Hershey, Dayton Daily News Posted Jan 10.

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Jan 5: Jon Husted: Ohio’s hyper-partisan redistricting rules can be changed

COLUMBUS -- "In the four decades this system has been in place, it has not served Ohio well. It has largely led to one-party control of state government for decades at a time and immunized many legislators from competitive elections. Further, this system has contributed to the hyper-partisan atmosphere in state government (and in Congress) because the political leaders who run it can serve their partisan interests and arguably have more power in elections than the voters. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can reform the system. The time to act is now. The Census, followed by the 2010 elections, will once again commence the redrawing of both legislative and congressional districts. Several constitutional amendments to reform the present system have been proposed," Jon Husted, Dayton Daily News.

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