In her majority opinion overturning state legislative maps passed by Republicans, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice called the current redistricting process a failure, adding voters may want to consider alternatives to prevent gerrymandering in the future.
Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'ConnorCLEVELAND, Ohio – In her majority opinion released Wednesday overturning state legislative maps passed by Republicans, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor called the current redistricting process a failure, adding voters may want to consider alternatives to prevent partisan gerrymandering in the future.
Republicans, who held a 5-2 majority on the commission, passed the maps in September without Democratic support – a requirement for 10-year maps – which preserved the GOP supermajority in the state. The Supreme Court, demanding the Ohio Redistricting Commission produce new maps for court approval within 10 days.
“While not free from their own vulnerabilities, independent redistricting commissions have become ‘the premier institutional solution to the problem of partisan gerrymandering’ because they increase the degree of separation between map-drawers and partisan politics,” she said. “They shift the power to redistrict away from partisan actors who have an incentive to gerrymander in order to maintain or expand their political power.
The Michigan process, approved in 2018 by voters, consists of 13 registered voters – four Democrats, four Republicans and five who are unaffiliated. The members are chosen at random by the secretary of state from a pool of applicants.
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