COLUMBUS, Ohio — Just hours before the midnight deadline, Ohio Republican lawmakers ditched the hired mapmakers and went with their own slightly tweaked versions of the third set of maps.
GOP lawmakers alleged the mapmakers took too long, and they were worried their versions wouldn’t make the Monday night deadline. They claimed they had drawn back-ups just in case, based on the third set of maps.
The Ohio Supreme Court rejected that set in late February, calling them unconstitutional because it unfairly favored Republicans and wasn’t representative of voters. The court then ordered the Ohio Redistricting Commission to draw a new set.
Before 10 p.m. Monday, the Republican lawmakers passed out copies of their tweaked set of maps to commission members, which then passed on a 4-3 vote.
The two Democrats and Republican Ohio Auditor Keith Faber voted against the proposal.
“I think the map had some of the same concerns I had last time when I voted against the map,” Faber said. “To be consistent, I think the vote was a no this time, too.
The last-minute plot twist in the redistricting debacle is drawing backlash from Democratic lawmakers, some calling it “an insult to the public,” said Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron.
“The way that they ramrodded this, forced it down the throats of the people of the state of Ohio in spite of the direction, clear direction from the court not only on what the end result ought to be as far as the constitutionality and to comply with the court order, but also the process of how we come about constitutional development and draw constitutional maps,” Sykes said.
The majority commissioners purposely wasted another opportunity to adopt constitutional, proportional maps. This ridiculous diversion is insulting to voters and comes at a considerable expense to Ohio taxpayers.
— Senator Vernon Sykes (@DrVernonSykes) March 29, 2022
House Minority Leader Rep. Allison Russo called the process frustrating.
“It certainly is frustrating any time you’re trying to have negotiations to get to a satisfying end point and an outcome that everyone can live with to have one side of the table or one side of the commission not doing that in good faith,” Russo said. “That’s extremely frustrating, and you know, it’s very insulting — not only to the process but to voters and to the court.”
Prior to the vote, Ohio Senate President Sen. Matt Huffman questioned whether the hired mapmakers would make the deadline.
“The question is, are the independent mapmakers, the commission mapmakers, I should say, are they going to produce something? And I don’t know the answer to that. As I said, I don’t have a Senate map here, as of whatever time it is, and there’s no confirmation of a House map. So we have to do something by the end of today,” he said.
Voting rights advocates are calling for an independent commission that wouldn’t include lawmakers, saying the current process isn’t working.
“I think it’s fascinating that they’re worried about the timeline, the deadline for the court, but not the substance of the orders that have been ordered over and over again to make sure maps are not rigged for parties or candidates,” said Jen Miller of the League of Women Voters. “We had this transparent process. The public has been watching excitedly and giving their input to maps, and what has happened instead — they have just shoved that aside and decided once again to take a map that was created in a bunker. In 2015, we voted against bunkers. You might not remember, but in 2011, there was a hotel room, and it was called the bunker, and they created maps that no one got to see, and they gave us a decade of rigged, partisan representation here in the statehouse and Congress.”
Since only Republican members passed the maps, they would last for four years. If two Republicans and both Democrats voted in favor of the maps, they would have lasted 10 years.
“I think that there’s a decent chance that this map won’t make the court’s test,” Faber said.
Reporter Josh Rultenberg contributed to this article.
