Ohio Politics Explained: A redistricting lawsuit and failed attempt at election data theft
The Ohio Supreme Court got another redistricting lawsuit and the lieutenant governor found himself tangled up in a civil suit this week. We explain what happened in both cases on week's episode of Ohio Politics Explained, a podcast from the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau.
Each week, we catch you up on the state's political news of the week in 15 minutes or less. This week, host Anna Staver was joined by reporter Laura Bischoff, our token University of Michigan graduate. (We won't hold it against her though.)
Here's what we talked about:
A group of lawyers walked into the Ohio Supreme Court
The ink was barely dry on Gov. Mike DeWine's signature when a group of Ohioans filed a lawsuit over the way Republicans drew Ohio's new Congressional lines.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder's National Redistricting Action Fund filed the legal challenge Monday, saying the new districts gave the GOP an unfair advantage.
Bad connection
Lake County made national news this week when news broke that the FBI was investigating whether a county official helped someone steal records from the board of elections.
The person, who has not yet been identified, plugged a non-county computer into an ethernet port in an attempt to access county voter data. The problem was the Lake County Board of Elections – like all Ohio boards of election – has a separate server that can't be accessed by unknown devices.
Lake County Election Board Director Ross McDonald said their network was never breached. Basically, it was like someone broke into the wrong house.
Million-dollar photographs
Franklin County agreed to pay $2.5 million to more than 680 women who said they were forced to strip and pose for photographs of their private parts while being booked into the county jail.
The pictures were part of a policy to document the tattoos of everyone who came through the jail, but the lawsuit called the practice "humiliating and abusive." These women had yet to be convicted of any crimes and were often arrested on minor offenses like traffic infractions or unpaid fines.
The county didn't admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, but it stopped photographing the intimate tattoos of misdemeanor detainees and will destroy the images it has.
Jon Husted and a House Bill 6 civil suit
Ohio's Lt. Gov. Jon Husted found himself in the news this week as one of the officials who might have information that two former First Energy executives would like to use to defend themselves against a shareholder lawsuit.
Former FirstEnergy chief executive Chuck Jones and former senior vice president Mike Dowling submitted a laundry list of lawmakers and officials they think might have evidence.
Husted's spokesperson said, "The lieutenant governor has no idea what this is referencing."
Listen to "Ohio Politics Explained" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and TuneIn Radio. The episode is also available by clicking the link at the top of the article.
The USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Explained podcast: Attempted data theft and a redistricting lawsuit
