The Attempt to Place an Incorrect and Misleading Summary of Anti-Gerrymandering Initiative on Ohio Ballot
Vote for the Real Issue 1 The Citizens, Not Politicians Ballot Initiative
Don’t be fooled!!! When opponents failed to keep a crucial anti-gerrymandering Citizens Not Politicians initiative off Ohio’s November ballot, they drafted misleading summary language designed to dupe voters, by portraying the measure as supporting gerrymandering.
I presented an accurate picture of the ballot measure in a March 18 Op Ed on Substack. I urge you to vote for Issue 1, the non-partisan Citizens Not Politicians anti-gerrymandering initiative, on the basis of what it actually says and ignore the way it is being portrayed by Secretary of State Frank La Rose and his allies.
La Rose, used his position as head of the Ohio Ballot Board to push the bogus language through. Proponents have filed suit before the Ohio Supreme Court.
Remember. Whatever the court decision and whatever the summary turns out to be, you are not voting on the summary, but on the initiative itself. Voters will decide if congressional and state legislative districts will be drawn by a non-partisan Citizens Redistricting Commission comprised of 5 Republicans, 5 Democrats and 5 Independents, beginning in 2006. See below
The highly partisan summary language is clearly against state law.
The full text of ballot initiatives is often lengthy and summaries are allowed so that voters can better understand the measure when they are at the polls. Ohio law requires summaries to accurately reflect the initiative that is up for a vote.
In Bailey v. Celebrezze (1981), the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that ballot language “must fairly and accurately present the question or issue to be decided in order to assure a free, intelligent and informed vote by the average citizen.” Section 3519.21 of Ohio Revised Code says the secretary of state or the ballot board is required to “give a true and impartial statement of the measures in such language that the ballot title shall not be likely to create prejudice for or against the measure.”
The Article XVI, Section 1 of Ohio Constitution states ballot language “shall properly identify the substance of the proposal to be voted upon,” and the language “shall not be held invalid unless it is such as to mislead, deceive or defraud the voters.”
The summary language devised by La Rose and his allies, violates all of the above requirements for accuracy and impartiality.
The Citizens Not Politicians Initiative
Issue 1 on this November’s ballot calls for the establishment of a non-partisan Citizens Redistricting Commission to draw congressional and legislative district maps, beginning in 2026. As I explained in my March 18, Op Ed, “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 would select the two Republican retired judges and Republicans would choose the two Democratic retired judges.
On March 18, I urged readers to sign the petition in order to get the initiative on the fall ballot. The petition drive succeeded. The campaign gathered 535,005 valid signatures, more than 100,000 above the required minimum, an indicator of the measure’s popularity.
The Bogus Summary Language
The summary language put through by La Rose and his allies on the Ohio Ballot Board, essentially portrays the Citizens Not Politicians initiative as the opposite of what it is really intended to accomplish. Paragraph 1, for example, states the initiative would
Repeal Constitutional protections against gerrymandering approved by nearly three quarters of Ohio electors participating in the statewide elections of 2015 and 2018, and eliminate the longstanding ability of Ohio citizens to hold their representatives accountable for establishing fair state legislative and congressional districts.
What is Wrong with this language?
The anti-gerrymandering initiatives approved by Ohio voters in 2015 and 2018 were undermined by the Republican super majority in the state legislature the original Ohio Redistricting Commission of which La Rose was a member. The Republican dominated Ohio Redistricting Commission submitted 5 state legislative district maps which were rejected as unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court as unduly partisan. The Republican majority in the legislature submitted 2 maps that were rule unconstitutional on the same basis.
Despite being declared unconstitutional multiple times, gerrymandered legislative and congressional maps ultimately went into effect because there was not enough time to change them before the 2022 mid term elections.
Over the past decades Republicans have held around a 54% to 46% majority over Democrats in statewide elections. Following the 2022 elections, the Republican Party actually increased its veto proof super majority to 76% in the Ohio Senate from 25 to 8 to 26 to 7. In the Ohio House, the Republicans gained 3 seats to increase its veto proof majority to 68%. In Congress, Republicans held 10 of 15 Congressional seats.
The successful 2015 and 2018 ballot initiatives were designed to prevent one political party to enjoy an unfair partisan advantage over another in establishing legislative and congressional districts. Republican super majorities managed to undermine the will of Ohio citizens in both cases.
Secretary of State Frank La Rose, as a member of the partisan redistricting commission, joined his colleagues in defying the intentions of voters and approved of gerrymandered Ohio House and Senate Districts. The Citizens, Not Politicians initiative represents a third opportunity to curtail blatant gerrymandering, by taking legislative and congressional district map making out of the hands of political parties and politicians and placing them in the hands of the people.