ICYMI: “Redistricting Mess” Caused by Republicans is Hurting Ohioans Across the Board
March 8, 2022
For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Darrel Rowland penned a column for The Columbus Dispatch today that highlights how the election chaos caused by Republicans is hurting both candidates and voters alike as Ohioans wait for the fair maps they overwhelmingly voted for in 2015 and 2018. The ongoing GOP-gerrymander is already costing Ohioans millions of dollars, putting the votes of Ohio service members in limbo and making a May 3 primary all but impossible.
“But this ignorance cannot be blamed on sleeping through civics class. It stems from a failure by Republicans who control Ohio’s redistricting process to convince a bipartisan majority of the state Supreme Court that the new GOP maps meet the constitutional requirements of redistricting measures overwhelmingly approved by Ohio voters in 2015 and 2018,” writes Darrel Rowland of the Dispatch.
As Republicans on the commission continue to do the bidding of their own political party and special interest donors, the costs for Ohioans will only continue to rise. Ohioans could pay tens of millions of dollars if the May 3 primary is moved, all because Republicans refuse to do their jobs and pass fair maps. And right now, less than two months before the scheduled primary, Ohio still doesn’t have final maps in place.
Read more from The Columbus Dispatch here and below:
- Ohioans are seeing the flip side in 2022: congressional and statehouse candidates can’t name whom they represent.
- “We have candidates that don’t know what district they’re running in, they don’t know who they may be running against, what their districts may ultimately look like, when their primary election may take place,” said Matt Keyes, communications director for the Ohio Democratic Party. “I think this is certainly frustrating for our candidates. I think it’s more frustrating for voters.”
- But this ignorance cannot be blamed on sleeping through civics class. It stems from a failure by Republicans who control Ohio’s redistricting process to convince a bipartisan majority of the state Supreme Court that the new GOP maps meet the constitutional requirements of redistricting measures overwhelmingly approved by Ohio voters in 2015 and 2018.
- The upshot: Every candidate for Congress and the state Senate and House this year had to file candidacy petitions for districts that have yet to win the court’s blessing. In fact, the districts that legislative candidates filed to run in last month already have been tossed out by the high court and replaced by another set.
- Currently, justices are considering a third state legislative map, plus a second congressional map after declaring the first one unconstitutionally gerrymandered – with the deadline for the first ballots due in less than two weeks.
- Excuse even the most politically savvy Ohioans for struggling to keep up.
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