Ohio is not a Red State-It is a Rigged State
This past week the Republican majority gerrymandered Ohio for yet another 4-years, with the unveiling of the new state legislative maps. Not only did the commission on redistricting miss the first deadline on the maps, but the midnight deadline on the extension was also bypassed by minutes before finally unveiling the first map. Additionally, the map for the Congressional Districts have yet to be produced and is expected to be tackled separately, as bipartisanship is something the commission struggled on.
Currently, the GOP holds a 64-35 supermajority in the Ohio House and a 25-8 supermajority in the Ohio Senate. The new proposed maps will award the GOP a large number of seats to preserve this supermajority, which requires 60+ seats and 22+ seats, respectively. The commission voted 5-2 on the maps presented, democrats obviously objecting. The only bipartisan agreement in the process was when the commission unanimously agreed that there was no way to come to agreements on 10-year maps, hence the settling for the four-year.
Even after hearing from the people in 2015, when the voters turned out to amend the constitution in order to implement new reform that would produce fair districts and maps that 75% of people supported, the GOP continues to rule with their corrupt, iron fists. The amendments included reforms prohibiting either party from proposing maps that will award them partisan political gain, a need for bipartisan compromise, and outlines that legislative seats be awarded based on the last ten years’ election results.
Much of the reform passed in 2015 was ignored during this redistricting process. The mandatory public hearings for the commission to hold for voters to testify were another topic of contention. The GOP went as far as to announce the time and location of the hearings until as late as the night before they were to take place, during what would be normal work hours for most voters who may have wanted to testify, in locations that weren’t not easy to get to.
As of 2020, the population was split almost evenly, 54% registered Republicans and 46% Democrats. The hundreds of voter testimonies at the redistricting hearings spoke volumes to this split and the need for bipartisanship of the commission. Also to note, of the republican majority commission members was Governor Mike DeWine. He missed a day of hearings to go to the Bengals preseason practice and can be seen on his phone on a day he was actually there rather than paying attention to voters’ pleas for fair representation.
The Ohio Democrats are silenced over and over by the gerrymandered maps. According to the Ohio Capital Journal, the Republican majority said in a statement that because they’ve won 13 of 16 statewide elections, they could be entitled to up to 81% of representation of the people, despite them only winning the average of 54% of the votes in those elections. The Republican Party also noted that the amendments passed in 2015 are simply just goals, and as long as they say they attempted to comply, they would not be held to them. The commission also did not account for the minority voters in the state, despite a US Supreme Court ruling that restricts how minority voters are split among districts.
While the proposed maps have a chance to be challenged by the courts, they are a slap in the face to every voter who showed up to testify and who has spoken out against gerrymandering in the years since the maps were created.
Overall, the proposed maps are less competitive and less politically representative of the state. Ohio is not a red state; it’s a rigged state. With statewide elections on the horizon in 2022, Rideshare2Vote will be on the ground getting you to the polls to vote blue. We must elect leaders who are more concerned with voters being heard than preserving supermajorities like the GOP clearly is. Help us turn Ohio blue in 2022!
by Heather Tingley
