Surge prompts return of daily COVID stats
When the delta variant of the coronavirus came on with a vengeance, we returned to reporting the daily statistics about infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
Rather than focusing an entire story on the numbers, we included them in related stories about the latest effects of COVID-19. And we found, based on emails and calls from readers, that some people were not seeing the numbers as they appeared in those larger stories.
Clearly, the numbers provided by the Ohio Department of Health are important to many of us. They are a daily indicator of how many people are affected and how strong the surge has become.
So we began publishing them daily in print in a box on page 2A. It’s short and to the point, and it gives you a quick read on the situation: new cases, the rolling 21-day average of cases, new hospitalizations, new deaths, the seven-day average of the PCR test positivity rate, the latest number of fully vaccinated Ohioans and the percentage of the population that number represents.
The statistics also are updated daily on Dispatch.com.
Voters guide in the works
The online voters guide for the upcoming election is in the works. The guide – sponsored by The Dispatch, WBNS-10TV, Thisweek Community News, The Advocate in Newark and the Eagle-gazette in Lancaster – provides information about contested races in the seven-county Greater Columbus area.
The guide is free for candidates and our readers, and we provide it as a community service as you prepare to vote. Early voting begins Oct. 5, so we are working diligently to get the guide posted by that time.
Last week, Digital Editor Chandler
Boese solicited email addresses from candidates in contested races. If you are among them and, by chance, you missed the Thursday deadline, please immediately send an email with the subject line “voters guide” to cboese@dispatch.com.
Candidates will be asked to answer some questions pertinent to their races. They have the opportunity to answer the questions as if they are speaking directly to the voters, so it’s an opportunity that candidates should not ignore.
When the guide goes live, it will allow voters to plug in their addresses. A program will then generate a list of candi
“We know that this matter will be in court. What I am sure in my heart is that this committee could have come up with a bill that was much more clearly constitutional. I’m sorry that we did not do that.”
The commission vote was five “yes” votes from the five Republicans to two “no” votes from the two Democrats.
“The commission determined that the statewide preferences of the voters of Ohio predominantly favor Republican candidates,” said a Republican statement released before the approval.
In other words, the party dominating the Statehouse due to gerrymandering determined that voters want the party dominating the Statehouse due to gerrymandering to continue to dominate the state with gerrymandering.
Inexplicably, they “reasoned” that the statewide proportion of voters favoring Republicans is between 55% to 81% and the proportion favoring Democrats is between 19% and 45%.
That all somehow means that Republicans deserve a 62-37 advantage in the House and a 23-10 majority in the Senate.
Huh?
The reality is that the total number of votes cast in the 16 statewide partisan contests in the past 10 years races favored Republicans 54% to Democrats 46% (near the lower end of the scale Republicans endorse).
Based on how people vote for statewide contests, Ohio is a right leaning state, but it is not dominated by Republicans.
It is deceptive to say otherwise. More than that, it is remarkable that Senate President Matt Huffman, a Republican and member the commission, was able to write the sentence “the General Assembly truly represents the voice of the people, district to district and town to town” with a straight face as part of his recent guest column for Dispatch readers.
The voting percentage the commission clearly ignored was the 71% of Ohioans who in 2015 voted for a fairer process for drawing legislative districts.
The 2015 constitutional amendments and one in 2018 sought to change the way officials draw voting district boundaries.
Instead, our leaders decided to once again stiff voters out of fair representation.
“Ohio voters can do amazing things when they work together. Let’s work together to reform the congressional map,” Sandy Theis, then executive director of Progressohio, said at the time.
Instead of reveling in a victory for democracy, Theis recently tweeted the words, “A solution to getting a constitutional map?“with an article about a little-known law that voters can use to remove public officials from office if they violate their oaths of office.
The lawmakers on the commission were working to keep members of their chambers in power instead of the people their members represent.
A map that would stand for 10 years would have required a majority of commissioners with two votes from each of the largest political parties; in this case, at least two Republicans and two Democrats. The approved map, which would stand for four years because the commission vote was not unanimous, is being challenged in the Ohio Supreme Court.
The League of Women Voters of Ohio, the Ohio chapter of the A. Philip
Gov. Mike Dewine
Randolph Institute and several individuals have filed a lawsuit Thursday.
The people wanted compromise, something neither Democrats nor Republicans are apparently willing to do in this state.
The Republicans have the power but blew their chance to be heroes for democracy.
Gov. Mike Dewine, Auditor Keith Faber and Secretary of State Frank Larose pushed for compromise during a process that does not appear to have involved negotiation or consideration of the mountain of voter input offered.
That’s fine, but like the other members of the commission, the trio gets a failing grade.
They knowingly put the will of voters on the back burner by voting for the map instead of pushing for more negotiation.
“We know that this matter will be in court,” said Dewine, a Republican and commission member. “What I am sure in my heart is that this committee could have come up with a bill that was much more clearly constitutional. I’m sorry that we did not do that.”
Saying “sorry” after betraying voters is far from adequate.
You do not get a gold star for saying something is wrong and doing it anyway.
In his opinion piece, Huffman urged people not to fall for what he calls the false narrative of, “my candidate can’t win based on the lines.”
That’s a fun argument considering that he helped create the very real narrative that divides voting districts into shapes not even found in jigsaw puzzles.
Lawmakers and members of the commission have a chance to get things right when they draw the congressional district.
Voters, let’s not hold our breath or let the egg dry. Flood the commission members with your thoughts on this. Here are their names and email addresses:
House Speaker Bob Cupp (R): 614466-9624, rep04@ohiohouse.gov
Senate President Matt Huffman(r) : 614-466-7584, huffman@ohiosenate.gov
House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes(d) 614-466-3100, rep34@ohiohouse.gov
Senator Vernon Sykes (D), 614-4667041, sykes@ohiosenate.gov
Auditor Keith Faber (R): 614-4664514, Centralregion@ohioauditor.gov, Stateregion@ohioauditor.gov
Secretary of State Frank Larose (R): 614-466-0562, Flarose@ohiosos.gov
Auditor Keith Faber (R) : 614-4664514, contactus@ohioauditor.gov
Gov. Mike Dewine (R): 614-6444357, 614-466-3555
Editorials are The Dispatch Editorial Board’s fact-based assessment of issues of importance to the communities we serve. These are not the opinions of our reporting staff members, who strive for neutrality in their reporting.