Objections filed to GOP-drawn legislative maps

Jan. 26—COLUMBUS — As expected, plaintiffs in the litigation that struck down the last set of maps filed objections late Tuesday night with the Ohio Supreme Court to new maps approved again solely with Republican votes.

The objections contend that the maps continue to heavily favor Republicans in violation of constitutional reforms overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2015 that were designed to remove political gerrymandering from the redistricting process.

That was the reason initially cited by the Ohio Supreme Court in its 4-3 decision to send the Ohio Redistricting Commission back to the drawing board. The commission voted 5-2 along party lines on Saturday to send the court new maps that would purportedly create 57 Republican-learning districts in the Ohio House of Representatives to Democrats' 42 and 20 GOP seats in the Senate to Democrats' 13.

That compares to the current super-majorities of 65-34 and 25-8, in the respective chambers.

"...A closer examination shows that Republicans can expect to win significantly more than 57 House districts under the revised House map," reads a challenge filed by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and other groups.

But while the new map would create fewer Republican-leaning seats to Democrats' advantage, critics argue that 12 of so-called "Democratic-leaning" districts would just barely register as such while GOP districts were more likely to be drawn with more comfortable margins.

"...All 57 of the House districts attributed by the Commission to the Republicans will reliably elect Republicans," reads one petition. "Not a single Republican seat has a partisan index of less than 52.6 percent. Because all of the revised House map's toss-up districts were labeled by the map-drawers as Democratic-leaning and put into the Democratic side of the ledger, the map-drawer's characterization of the map grossly overestimates the total number of Democratic leaning districts in the revised House map."

Among other things, the petitions criticize the maps' treatment of districts in the Columbus, Akron, and Cincinnati areas. Democrats had offered alternatives that Republican commissioners contended that the map would have violated other provisions of the constitution requiring geographically compact districts that split as few counties and municipalities as possible.

In striking down the first set of maps, the high court's majority had noted that Republicans on average have garnered 54 percent of the statewide vote over the last decade. It ruled that the commission did not "attempt," as required by the constitution, to more closely align maps with Ohioans' voting preferences.

Feb. 2 marks the statutory deadline for candidates to file petitions for the May 3 primary election, including state House and Senate districts for which lines have yet to be finalized. The commission has three days to reply to the plaintiffs' charges, and then the matter will again be in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Republicans have been reluctant to delay the filing deadline for state races, holding out hope the high court will uphold the latest maps.

"To the extent the (commissioners) raise concerns about election timing, that schedule is the product of statutory enactments and administrative actions," the plaintiffs argue. "Should the court determine that there are constitutional infirmities with the revised map, it can direct the legislature and Secretary of State to make the necessary adjustments to the election schedule."

While the state office filing deadline remains in place, the Ohio Senate and House on Wednesday, with bipartisan support, rushed passage of a measure to give state legislative candidates greater flexibility when it comes to gathering signatures of registered voters under still uncertain maps.

The bill would allow signatures gathered in a county to count even if that part of the county ultimately ends up outside the final congressional or state legislative district lines. A portion of that county, however, must still be part of the new district.

"Democrats, Republicans, incumbents, non-incumbents all face some rather interesting questions given the fact that the maps are changing and have changed as recently as this past Saturday," Rep. Bill Seitz (R., Cincinnati) said. "So many people went out in good faith collecting their signatures based on the district that they thought they had until about two weeks ago Wednesday. Now they find they have a somewhat different district."

The bill also solidifies lawmakers' prior decision to delay the congressional candidate filing deadline until March 4.

The bill heads to Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican.

A pair of Democrats — Reps. Lisa Sobecki (D., Toledo) and Thomas West (D., Canton) — have introduced a bill to delay the primary election to June 7, setting the filing deadline at March 3.

First Published January 26, 2022, 10:24am