Ohio: Running Out The Clock
Republicans drag their feet in the redistricting process in hopes that their maps will stand up in court.
The following post contains data on invalidated congressional districts. The maps shown below were drawn by Republicans in the Ohio legislature and signed into law by the governor in late November. The Ohio Supreme Court later invalidated these districts on January 14, 2022, forcing legislators to draw a new map within 30 days. If the legislature fails to draw an acceptable map a second time, the job transfers to an bipartisan redistricting commission. Today, we will investigate why Ohio’s new congressional map was thrown out by the court.
Click here to see new congressional districts that have been approved for the 2022 election.
Topline Takeaways
Republicans fully control the congressional redistricting process in Ohio and enacted a new map that was signed by the governor on November 20, 2021.
The new congressional map was ultimately invalidated as it was “infused with undue partisan bias.” The Court found that Republicans violated language in a constitutional amendment recently passed in 2018 by voters to ensure fair representation in the redistricting process.
The successful challenge to Ohio’s map provides a model for voters looking to challenge unfair maps in other states as federal courts have largely stopped hearing gerrymandering cases and have closed an avenue for remedies.
Who’s In Control?
Republicans fully control the congressional redistricting process in Ohio. New maps are drawn and enacted by the Republican-led state legislature by a three-fifths vote. If the legislature fails to pass a map, redistricting falls to a bipartisan commission made up of statewide elected officials and legislators. If the commission fails to enact a map, a new map may be passed by a simple majority in the legislature and signed into law by the governor, but that map is valid for only four years.
Ohio meandered through each step of this process throughout last fall: no Democrats supported maps for a three-fifths vote and the commission also failed to draw maps approved by the legislature. Republicans grabbed the pen and created new maps that were passed by a party-line vote and signed into law by the Republican governor. Barely two days after the new congressional map was enacted, a lawsuit was filed by voters challenging the map. This challenge alleged that the new maps violated provisions outlined in a recently passed ballot measure aimed to increase fairness in the state’s redistricting process.
In 2018, voters approved a ballot measure that amended the Ohio Constitution. The amendment reads as follows:
(C)(3) If the general assembly passes a congressional district plan under division (C)(1) of this section by a simple majority of the members of each house of the general assembly, and not by the vote described in division (C)(2) of this section, all of the following shall apply:
(a) The general assembly shall not pass a plan that unduly favors or disfavors a political party or its incumbents.
(b) The general assembly shall not unduly split governmental units, giving preference to keeping whole, in the order named, counties, then townships and municipal corporations.
(c) Division (B)(2) of Section 2 of this article shall not apply to the plan. The general assembly shall attempt to draw districts that are compact.
(d) The general assembly shall include in the plan an explanation of the plan's compliance with divisions (C)(3)(a) to (c) of this section.
(e) If the plan becomes law, the plan shall remain effective until two general elections for the United States house of representatives have occurred under the plan, except as provided in Section 3 of this article.
[Invalidated] District Breakdown
In the 2020 U.S. House elections, Ohio’s GOP House candidates received a total of 3.2 million votes, roughly 56% of the total House votes cast within the state. If the same election were held with the invalidated congressional district map, this would have resulted in Republicans winning as much as 81% of Ohio’s U.S. House seats (13 seats). It puts two of Democrats’ remaining four seats in jeopardy as it flips a previously Democratic district toward Republicans (OH-9) while forcing two House incumbents to face off in a Republican leaning district (OH-6). Imagine 43% of Ohioans, more than 2.4 million voters, being represented by only 2 members in the House. A map that creates this environment most certainly qualifies as “unduly favoring a particular party.”
What’s even more startling is the way in which Republican mapmakers practically ignored the requirement outlined in provision (C)(3)(b). In its decision, the Ohio Supreme Court clearly points to district boundaries in Cuyahoga, Hamilton and Summit counties as unnecessary violations of provision (C)(3)(b).
Ohio’s ideal district size for this round of redistricting is just south of 800,000 voters per district. Cuyahoga county (home to Cleveland) holds nearly 1.3 million residents so splitting this county between several districts is necessary. The problem is that Republicans’ decisions on how to do this were clearly motivated by partisan bias. While downtown Cleveland is given its own seat as the state’s eleventh congressional district, both OH-13 and OH-14 take the city’s Democratic suburbs and offset their votes by grouping them with heavily Republican counties nearby. This takes what could have been a safely suburban Democratic district and splits it into two fairly safe districts for Republicans.
The 2020 census pegged Hamilton county’s population at 830,000; therefore the entire county could be its own district if it shared roughly 3% of its residents with a second district. Republicans had their own plans and instead decided to split the county between three different districts. The state’s first district holds the downtown areas of Cincinnati but oddly also includes all of neighboring Warren county. OH-8 snakes around the Dayton metropolitan area all the way down into the Cincinnati suburbs. OH-2 also peeks into Hamilton county, picking up a couple of exurban neighborhoods. The result is a cracked Cincinnati that should have been packed into its own “urban-metro” district.
The decision to split Summit county was wholly unnecessary as the county holds just 540,000 residents and is home to Akron. Again, Republicans cracked a city by splitting its residents between OH-13 and OH-7, creating two Republican leaning districts rather than a safely Democratic district anchored by Akron.
What’s Next for Ohio?
The court ruling sends the redistricting process back to the legislature. Republicans have 30 days to draw a new map that adheres to the state’s constitution. If Republicans fail to enact a new map within that time frame, the duty falls back on the bipartisan redistricting commission to make another attempt at drawing a fair map. The clock is ticking as the eventual map will be used in Ohio’s upcoming primary elections on May 3, 2022.