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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Secretary of State Frank LaRose notified the 88 county boards of elections, the General Assembly and Gov. Mike DeWine late Thursday night that because of the Ohio Supreme Court’s rejection of the legislation maps, the May 3 primary won’t include House and Senate races.

“I regret to inform you that as a result of last night’s decision by the Ohio Supreme court, and barring the immediate action of a federal court, our 88 county boards of elections can no longer include contests for the state House and state Senate in the May 3, 2022 primary election,” LaRose wrote.

Preparations will continue for the statewide, congressional and local contests, though. As of Friday, the date of the primary hasn’t changed. LaRose didn’t mention the possibility of pushing the primary back.

Rep. Jon Cross, R-Kenton, said Thursday his caucus does not want to move the primary and “should ignore the court” by proceeding with the legislative maps, anyway.

“LaRose is going to have to figure out who he is going to listen to, the court or the General Assembly,” Cross said.​

Meanwhile, spokespeople for Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, and Ohio House Speaker Robert Cupp, R-Lima, said they are still reviewing the decision and discussions are ongoing.

Jen Miller, with the League of Women Voters of Ohio, a plaintiff in the redistricting lawsuits, said pushing it all back is the most economically sensible option.

“There’s a lot that goes into administering a secure, safe, accessible election, and the timeline was already too tight,” Miller said. “So the General Assembly just needs to move the primary later. You know, it’s best for voters, boards of elections and tax dollars would be to have one primary that’s pushed back. Let’s get these maps correct.”

Miller also said the filing deadline for legislative candidates needs to be opened back up, because the districts are still not settled and candidates may not know yet if they want to run.

Meanwhile, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the Ohio Redistricting Commission to come up with new legislative maps by Monday, March 28.

Commission co-chair Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, reached out to Cupp on Thursday to see when a meeting could be scheduled, but those details are unknown.

However, Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday, he is taking the lead for the commission and wants the Democrats’ mapmaker and the two Republican mapmakers in a room together drawing one set of maps.

On Twitter, Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said it is “well-documented” how Democrats have been telling their mapmaker to do this since the redistricting process began last year and even made their mapmaker available to other commissioners.

Newsflash: Democratic Commissioners have been instructing our mapmaker to do this since the redistricting process began last year. We’ve even made our mapmaker available to other Commissioners. This is well documented. https://t.co/C485rTs02b

— Allison Russo🌻 (@Russo4Ohio) March 17, 2022

In the courts, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor said the commission should hire an “independent map drawer who answers to all commission members, not only to the Republican legislative leaders — to draft a plan through a transparent process.”

DeWine was not a fan of the idea.

“The idea that we’re going to be able to go out and hire somebody new and have them do this work and do this work in 10 days, I think, presents some very significant challenges,” said DeWine. “So we have to try to follow the [Ohio] Supreme Court decision about the end result that they want.”

Other states have used a “Special Master” to draw their maps this year, including Pennsylvania and North Carolina. However, special masters have autonomy over the map drawing, which is not what the Ohio Supreme Court suggested. 

With the ruling made, Republicans at the Statehouse and across the state criticized O’Connor for aligning herself with the Democrats on the court throughout this process.

Even before Wednesday’s decision dropped, Republicans have been openly bashing O’Connor calling her “rogue judge” that is part of the “liberal majority” when she, in fact, is a Republican.

Republicans said they feel she has been leading an “activist court” and “abused her power.”

Nonetheless, DeWine felt the need to address the situation when asked Thursday what he thinks about his own party coming down on O’Connor.

“We need to stay focused on the ball and the focus should stay on getting these districts, and I don’t think we should be distracted from that,” said DeWine. “The legislature also has other business to do. I’m going to present a ‘State of the State’ speech next week. I’m going to lay out some additional things that I would hope that they would do. And let’s stay focused on the job at the hand, the job that the people elected us to do. I think any distraction about talking about the chief justice is, I think, not a good idea.”