Here’s how Ohio aims to redraw districts
Recrafting Ohio’s congressional and legislative boundaries is a somewhat convoluted process under a pair of constitutional amendments approved by the state’s voters.
First, the state must wait for the release of U.S. census data. Then, for Congress, the General Assembly will try to approve districts with a threefifths vote of approval from the entire membership, including at least 50% of both Republicans and Democrats by Sept. 30, 2021.
If that fails, the duty falls to the newly constituted Ohio Redistricting Commission – the governor, state auditor, secretary of state and one person each appointed by the House speaker and Senate president (currently all Republicans) and one person each appointed by the chambers’ minority Democrat leaders, both of whom must support the redesign by Oct. 31 of next year.
If no deal is reached by the commission, it’s back to the legislature, where another three-fifths vote of the entire membership would be required for a 10-year map, this time only needing the OK of at least one-third of each party’s members.
Three failures at a bipartisan plan would permit lines to be drawn by a simple majority (Republican) vote, with no bipartisanship requirement, by Nov. 30, 2021. But explicit anti-gerrymandering mandates must be followed and the map would only be good for four years before another would be required.
Of Ohio’s 88 counties, 65 cannot be split between districts, 18 others can only be split once and the five mostpopulous counties – Franklin, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Summit and Montgomery – cannot be split more than twice.
The process of crafting lines for legislative districts is not as complicated, only involving the Redistricting Commission. Two members of of each party have to agree to adopt a bipartisan plan for a decadelong map.
Failing that, those in the legislative majority, now the GOP, adopt new district lines, but they only last four years and then must be reexamined. House and Senate districts are required to be compact and not favor one political party.
With political control of the Ohio Supreme Court on the line in Tuesday’s election, both Republicans and Democrats have stressed the importance of securing a court majority to hearing potential appeals of the redistricting plans.
Democrats would control the court by a 4-3 margin next year – for the first time since 1986 – if its two candidates defeat the incumbent Republican justices. The court is restricted to ordering the fixing of specific defects in the maps; it cannot throw out the entire plan. rludlow@dispatch.com @Randyludlow