Dear Editor,
In May 2018 Ohio citizens voted on Issue One, amending the Ohio Constitution, to adopt new procedures for drawing legislative districts that will not favor one party over the other.
Of all Ohio voters that year, 74.9 percent marked their ballots in favor of ending partisan gerrymandering. That statistic assures us that a majority of Ohioans approved the amendment, regardless of party affiliation. The people of Ohio just wanted it to be fair.
Unfortunately, the Ohio Redistricting Commission has not lived up to that expectation. The people on the Commission don’t care about what’s fair. They listened politely to all the comments by citizens and then they drew their map revisions but ultimately, they did not care what anybody said.
Now at the end of the process, the Commission has decided to eliminate comments from any more citizens. They simply don’t care what voters want.
For our 99 house districts and 33 senate districts, plus the 16 districts that send representation to Washington, how do we determine the correct proportion of Republicans to Democrats?
We determine that proportion by referring to our past votes. In 2020, Trump beat Biden in Ohio in a vote of 53.3 to 43.3 percent. In 2018, Mike DeWine beat Rich Cordray, 50.4 to 46.7 percent. In 2016, Trump beat Clinton in Ohio, 51.3 to 43.2 percent.
Considering those statistics, no more than 54 percent of our legislative districts should be Republican-dominant, with 43 percent as Democratic-dominant and 3 percent reflecting minority parties. Unfortunately, over 70 percent of the districts are now dominated by Republicans.
As an Ohio voter, I am chastising the Redistricting Commission for blatantly ignoring the voice of the voters who spoke in 2018, producing new district maps that are even worse than before. The Commission members should universally resign from public office.
Sincerely,
Linda Cocuzzi Richter
Niles
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