Let Us End Gerrymandering in the November 2024 Election. Please Sign the Petition
Support the Citizens Not Politicians Redistricting Initiative
This is an Op Ed urging you to sign a non-partisan petition designed to strike a decisive blow against extreme gerrymandering in Ohio. The Citizens Not Politicians initiative proposes to amend the Ohio Constitution by placing the authority to draw Ohio House and Senate and Congressional district maps in the hands of a bi-partisan Citizens Commission. A minimum of 413,488 valid signatures are needed by July 3, 2024 to ensure that the initiative will appear on the ballot in the November 2024 general election. Collection of petition signatures is well underway and, as the weather gets warmer, you will see more volunteers outside your libraries, grocery stores and at various local events.
How would the Citizens Not Politicians Initiative Combat Gerrymandering?
The initiative is designed to stop majority political parties from drawing highly partisan district maps that allow them to maintain super majorities in the Ohio General Assembly and in Congress. The Citizens Not Politicians proposal, if approved by a majority of Ohio voters, would remove politicians & lobbyists from the redistricting process.
Legislative and Congressional district maps would be drawn by a 15 member Citizens Commission comprised of 5 Republicans, 5 Democrats and 5 Independents.
Elected officials holding office within the past 6 years, their families and lobbyists would not be eligible to serve on the Commission.
The 15 commissioners would be drawn from a pool of 30 Republicans, 30 Independents and 30 Democrats. Four retired judges would select the 90 person pool of applicants. Democrats on the Ohio Ballot Board will select the two Republican retired judges and Republicans will choose the two Democratic retired judges.
With the exception of disqualified politicians and lobbyists, any Ohio citizen can submit an application to become a Commissioner.
The proposed amendment would make it unconstitutional to create state legislative and Congressional district maps that favor or disfavor a political party. Accordingly, the Ohio House, Senate and Congressional district maps must “correspond closely” to voter preferences in statewide elections.
In practical terms, if statewide voting patterns revealed a 54% to 46% advantage for Republican candidates, 54% of legislative districts would ideally lean Republican and 46% would lean Democratic. The initiative would consider a 3% deviation in either direction as meeting the “correspond closely” standard.
Ultimately, Ohio’s Citizens Not Politicians initiative is a non-partisan effort. Its framers studied Citizen Redistricting Commissions in other states such as Michigan, Colorado, Arizona and Washington in an attempt to incorporate their best features.
Gerrymandering Promotes Hyper Partisanship and Minority Rule
Gerrymandering contributes to the current polarization in both the state and federal levels of our political system. When one party controls the establishment of legislative districts, likely voters of the minority party are either “packed” into a relatively few districts where their candidates hold an overwhelming advantage, or “cracked” into two or more districts dominated by voters for majority party. The resulting maps produce an unrepresentative number of “safe” districts for the majority Party.
If candidates know their party holds an overwhelming advantage in their districts, the real challenge to election or re-election comes in the party primary. Primaries draw disproportionate percentages of highly partisan voters, which favors the most highly partisan candidates. When legislatures obtain large majorities through gerrymandered districts, they are accountable only to their most ardent, combative constituents. As a consequence, they are able to pass laws that are opposed by the majority of Ohio’s citizens. Gerrymandering is a prime instrument for minority rule, because there is little incentive for representatives of the majority party to compromise with those who disagree.
Haven’t Constitutional Amendments Against Gerrymandering Already Passed?
Yes, it is clear that Ohio citizens are overwhelmingly opposed to gerrymandering. In 2015, and again in 2018, they approved amendments to the Ohio Constitution designed to establish Congressional and State Legislative districts that better represented the voting patterns of Ohio Citizens. Both measures passed with over 70% of the vote.
The partisan super majority in the Ohio House and Senate eventually succeeded in drawing gerrymandered legislative and Congressional districts once again, however, even though the Ohio Supreme Court determined on multiple occasions that the maps they presented were unconstitutional. By producing unconstitutional maps over and over, they eventually ran out the clock for producing fair districts prior to the 2022 election. Given the majority party’s complete disregard for the will of the people, the only effective step is to take politicians out of the redistricting process, altogether.