Reform districts to get back on track

Another viewpoint is a column The Morning Journal makes available so all sides of an issue may be aired. Rep. Joe Miller is in his second term representing Ohio’s 56th House District. He lives in Amherst.

Right now, more people are moving out of Ohio in search of opportunity than are coming here to find it.

This year, Ohio joins six other states who will lose a congressional seat when maps are redrawn. This marks the sixth consecutive time that Ohio has lost seats, and with it, the further loss of our influence both on Capitol Hill and in presidential politics. Ohio’s diminished influence is a direct result of a slow-growing population that continues to lag the national average. In the past 10 years, Ohio has ranked among the most moved out of states, falling behind even that State up North in terms of people moving into our state.

One of the reasons for this is gerrymandering, the intentional manipulation of electoral maps to influence the result for one party or another. This process elevates the voices of extreme partisan politicians at the expense of everyday Ohioans, leading to the kind of divisive policies that have many, especially young people, leaving our state in droves.

In the eight presidential elections since 1992, Ohio has evenly split between Republicans and Democrats winning the state, a reflection of our swing-state status. But you wouldn’t know that by looking at our politics. Republicans have controlled the House, Senate, and governor’s office in 23 of the past 30 years, and despite winning just over half the vote, Republicans hold two-thirds of the congressional seats and 60 percent of the state legislature.

Ohio is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country. In fact, our districts are so poorly drawn that a federal panel unanimously declared in 2019 that Ohio’s maps are “so skewed toward one party that the electoral outcome is predetermined.”

Here in Lorain County, representation stretches far and wide across Ohio. Avon, in the northwest part of the county, has representation at the congressional level by a congressman who also represents a rural county nearly 100 miles away. At the same time, Avon is gerrymandered into a district that is largely represented by rural interests in the 57th Ohio House District.

These rigged districts don’t represent who we are as Ohioans, as evidenced by what we’ve seen coming out of Columbus, including the implementation of Academic Distress Commissions that disenfranchise our community and continue to fail our kids, cuts to public education, more tax giveaways to millionaires and billionaires, and two Republican Speakers under federal investigation in the past four years.

That’s why Ohioans took action, passing not one, but two measures to ensure the next time we redraw our districts will be fair, open, transparent, and better represent who we are as a state.

This year, we have our first opportunity to redraw districts under these guidelines, and I want to see that the people, not politicians, are the ones who benefit.

Ohio’s Redistricting Commission is currently holding public hearings across the state to hear from you, the voters, about what you think your community’s districts should look like. I encourage everyone to do what they can to participate, whether it’s through testifying in person, submitting a written statement or following along online via the Ohio Channel.

There’s so much at stake because we know that when we draw maps, we choose what hospitals, schools and resources are funded in our neighborhoods and communities.

What we do in the coming weeks will shape our state’s future for the next decade or more.

Renewing our promise as an opportunity state, the kind of place where people want to move to find a good paying job, go to school, start or grow a business and raise a family, means restoring government that works for the people with commonsense policies that reflect our values by expanding opportunity, investing in our children’s future and growing good paying jobs.

But we can’t have that without fair districts that empower Ohio voters to choose their leaders rather than our current system which does the opposite.

The voters laid the groundwork. We need to get this right. We need to bring fair maps back to Ohio.

Rep. Joe Miller