Letters: Republicans cheating the election process by rigging district maps
The Ohio Redistricting Committee has repeatedly thwarted the will of Ohio voters by submitting unfair maps.
It’s a simple concept: draw districts on the map that reflect the actual Ohio voting population - 55% Republican and 45% Democratic.
The Republican-controlled committee has knowingly, cynically, shamefully tried five times to push unfair maps on us which reflect overly favorable Republican districts. The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled every time, that each of the five maps were unconstitutional and therefore unacceptable as they do not comply with the mandates of Ohio’s Constitution.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, has exemplified courage and integrity in spite of vicious attacks from within her own party. She’s voted with the Democrats on the Supreme Court to reject the unfair maps, but all has been in vain.
This is because three partisan federal judges have now stepped in and declared that the third map, which was ruled unconstitutional, will be used for 2022.
Why couldn’t the committee simply do the right thing? Given five attempts, Ohioans still did not get what we voted for — fair maps.
It appears that Republicans cannot win on good policy and candidates, so to remain in power, they tip the scales with unfair districts favoring their party. This process has been sickening to watch.
Republicans defied orders repeatedly, then turned around and blamed the Supreme Court for primary delays.
Our state sadly reflects the national Republican trend to control states and stay in power with voter suppression laws and biased redistricting. We can only hope that, as Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor suggests, there is a resolution to this ongoing unsettling situation by pushing through more redistricting reform that takes partisanship out of map-drawing.
But with O’Connor retiring and no longer on the bench when the next round of redistricting occurs, fair maps are far from a sure thing.
Pat Cornelius, Wooster
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Republicans cheating the election process by rigging district maps
