A Citizen's Guide To Redistricting In Ohio

Good lessons from Michigan and Colorado - and cautionary tales from other states

The redistricting process in Ohio is broken. Today, the Electoral Innovation Lab releases a report exploring what’s broken - and repairs that citizens can enact in 2024.

When redistricting is in the hands of one party, it can lead to extreme partisan maps. That’s even true when the power is in the hands of a commission, depending on how the commission is constructed. In Ohio, the commission is composed of political officials, and has a partisan composition of 5 members of the majority party (Republicans) and 2 members of the minority party (Democrats). All of this is laid out in the state constitution.

Unsurprisingly, this mechanism has led to partisan gerrymander after partisan gerrymander. Indeed, the state Supreme Court has repeatedly found that both the congressional map and legislative maps are in violation of partisan proportionality requirements in the state constitution. But that same constitution did not give the court clear power to replace the plans.

However, there is a better way. We have done a deep dive into different reforms around the country to learn what has worked. We find that in Ohio, a successful reforms would have the following features:

• an independent commission with autonomous power to draw lines;

• commissioners who are citizens, not legislators or legislators’ designates;

• provisions in the law to ensure partisan fairness and representation of communities; and

• authority by state courts to impose a replacement map.

Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, and California have these provisions. As the saying goes, states are the laboratories of democracy. These states have done successful experiments. (As counterexamples, Virginia and New York ran into trouble and lacked one or more of the key features listed above.)

A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting in Ohio reviews the state’s current redistricting system, presents the major weaknesses, and offers lessons from recently formed independent commissions in other states as guides to reform in the Buckeye State.

As it turns out, voting rights advocates in Ohio are working on a ballot initiative for the 2024 election to establish a 15-member citizen-led independent commission that implements these recommendations. Our report can serve as an informational resource detailing key factors for a successful independent redistricting process, best practices for commissioners, and perspectives for balancing the varied interests that reflect Ohio’s parties and communities.

Now-retired Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote in her concurring opinion in League of Women Voters of Ohio vs. Ohio Redistricting Commission (2022) that “Ohioans may opt to pursue further constitutional amendment to replace the current commission with a truly independent, nonpartisan commission that more effectively distances the redistricting process from partisan politics.” A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting in Ohio describes how such a citizen-led commission could operate to facilitate fair representation of communities around the state.

Take a look at our report here, or write to info@electoral-lab.org for a hard copy.