Two years after winning a reform of the way Statehouse lawmakers’ districts are drawn, advocates for congressional redistricting in Ohio have taken the first step to putting that issue before voters.
The League of Women Voters, Common Cause Ohio and the Ohio Environmental Council have collected 1,000 petition signatures to ask voters to change the way Congressional district maps are drawn. The proposed amendment would closely follow a Statehouse redistricting plan that voters overwhelmingly supported in 2015. The goal is to lessen political gerrymandering that allows the party in control to draw districts to its benefit itself and leads to a lack of compromise in governing. Republicans drew the Congressional map in 2011, and now hold 12 of Ohio’s 16 seats in the US House. If the groups get the go-ahead, they’ll have to gather more than 300,000 valid signatures of Ohio registered voters. But it’s unlikely it would happen this year, since the deadline is in July.
