Group sees strong support for ending gerrymandering in Ohio
Local volunteers involved in a citizen-led effort to amend Ohio’s constitution to try to get rid of gerrymandering say they have seen a strong show of support from community members and they are confident they will get enough signatures to put the measure on the November ballot.
“Our goal is to stop gerrymandering in Ohio once and for all,” said Joyce Gibbs, a volunteer for Citizens Not Politicians, the group behind the push to take redistricting responsibilities away from lawmakers.
Supporters say they are well on their way to collect- ing the more than 413,000 valid signatures they need by July 3 to qualify for the November general elec- tion ballot. The campaign declined to say how many signatures have been gathered.
But hundreds of volun- teers with Citizens Not Pol- iticians fanned out to poll- ing places across the state Tuesday with hopes of add- ing thousands of signatures to the list.
The proposed constitu- tional amendment would create a 15-member Ohio Cit- izens Redistricting Commis- sion comprising five Repub- licans, five Democrats and five independents from various parts of the state.
Current or former poli- ticians, political party offi- cials and lobbyists would not be allowed to serve on the commission, which would be required to take part in an “open and independent process,” supporters say.
have citizens across Ohio gathering thousands of signatures every day and are on track to meet our goal,” said Chris Davey, a spokes- person for Citizens Not Poli- ticians. “There is energy and enthusiasm from Republi- cans, Democrats and Inde- pendents, who all see that the system run by politicians is broken and it’s up to citi- zens to fix it.”
Gibbs and another volun- teer, Janice James, said they collected 18 signatures in a 45-minute period as they stood outside a polling loca- tion in Kettering, talking to people who were voting in the primary election.
James, 71, of Dayton, said she’s been collecting signa- tures for several weeks. She’s knocked on doors, reached out to neighbors and friends and stood outside a Dayton theater, she said.
“People get it right away, because we’ve been fighting gerrymandering for years, and most people are aware of the fact that Ohio is a very gerrymandered state,” James said.
The Gerrymandering Project at Princeton University gave Ohio a “D” grade for the “partisan fairness” of its dis- trict maps, with the advan- tage going to Republicans.
Gibbs said in a democracy, voters are supposed to choose their elected officials, but through gerrymander- ing, elected officials choose their voters. Elected officials draw the state’s voting maps, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have created dis- tricts that are not competi- tive, Gibbs said.
Elected officials who know they are in a “safe” district don’t have to be responsive or accountable to citizens, Gibbs said.
“It dilutes the voting power of some voters in a district but strengthens other voters, so there’s a power imbalance,” she said. “This is not a one-party issue.”
Kathy Hollingsworth, 71, of Kettering, said she signed the petition for the redistrict- ing ballot measure because politicians should not be in charge of creating district maps. She said lawmakers usually draw the lines in ways that benefit themselves or their parties.
Hollingsworth said redis- tricting is a somewhat com- plicated issue and not everyone understands the prob- lem or what’s at stake.
She said the more educa- tion voters can get about the issue, the better.
“I think we saw last election that when there’s a passion for something in the state, we can make it happen,” she said. “I think (the districts) are not very fair.”
Some people say taking the redistricting process out of lawmakers’ hands will restore faith in the fairness of elections.
Jennifer Weaver, 69, of Kettering, said, “I like the idea of having people (put) into the decision-making process, instead of just politicians . ... I think we should give it back to the people.”
This effort is one of six citizen-led efforts underway to amend the Ohio Constitution. The campaigns are at various stages of the process and have widely varying amounts of money. Historically, these groups tend to use both volunteers and paid signature gatherers to meet the state’s quotas. In recent history, this has been a very pricey ordeal.
Four of those six efforts are in the signature-gathering phase, Citizens Not Politicians included. Other efforts include an amendment to establish a new $15 minimum wage; an amendment to grant the right to refuse vaccines and other medical treatments; and an amendment to set lower nurse-to-patient ratios in nursing homes.
Two other campaigns to pass amendments to end qualified immunity for government employees and to broadly expand voting access in Ohio have not yet received initial approval from the state and are thus unable to gather signatures.
Reporter Avery Kreemer contributed to this story.