By Sanford Lubin
An organization called Citizens Not Politicians has brought over 200 Ohio voter rights and other citizen-led entities together in an effort to finally end the practice of gerrymandering in the state.
Gerrymandering is the deliberate manipulation of the election district maps by partisan politicians in order to predetermine the outcome of elections before the first votes are ever cast. It is done by partisan politicians in order to maintain their power and control.
The Citizens Not Politicians organization has collected over 731,000 signatures from voters across Ohio to place Issue 1 on the ballot in the November 2024 elections. If passed, it will remove politicians and lobbyists from the process of drawing the election district maps in Ohio and replace them with an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. Citizens Not Politicians is providing a simple message to Ohio voters 鈥 Vote Yes on Issue 1 to Ban Gerrymandering.
Yard signs and other communications have begun appearing in Ohio stating: 鈥淪top Gerrymandering, Vote No on Issue One 鈥 Paid for by the Ohio Republican Party.鈥
Is the Republican Party in Ohio being truthful about stopping gerrymandering or is it attempting to confuse and deceive voters across the state?
So, what actions have the GOP and its politician members taken to Stop gerrymandering in the state?
In 2022, prior to the midterm elections, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered on seven separate occasions that election district maps drawn by the GOP controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission were unconstitutional and had to be redrawn.聽
GOP leaders on the Ohio Redistricting Commission ignored each of the Supreme Court’s orders. They did this to protect the unconstitutional gerrymandered election districts across the state.
In 2023, Ohio GOP leaders called a special election costing taxpayers over $20 million in order to place a ballot issue before voters. This ballot issue, if passed, would have effectively ended the rights for Ohio citizens to place issues on the ballot to amend the constitution when politicians are not following the wishes of voters in the state.
The 2023 ballot issue was based on legislation in the Ohio General Assembly sponsored by Brian Stewart (R-Ashville, Oh). According to a May 10, 2023 article by and Karen Kasler in the Statehouse News Burea, Brian Stewart explained in a private letter to other GOP members that one of the main purposes of this legislation was to protect gerrymandered election districts in the state.
Voters across Ohio overwhelmingly rejected this GOP ballot issue that was a disguised attempt to protect gerrymandering.
In 2024, the Issue1 ballot language was changed to confuse and deceive Ohio voters
In August, 2024, the GOP members who control the Ohio Ballot Board significantly changed the proposed ballot language for Issue 1 that voters will see. They were not able to change the actual legal wording of the proposed Issue 1 law, just the language that voters will see at the polls.
The Ballot Board’s language was so wrongful that Citizens Not Politicians immediately filed a lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court.
In a 4 to 3 decision on 9/16/24, the four GOP members on the Ohio Supreme Court banned some of the Ballot Board’s false language, but allowed the use of much of the untruthful/deceptive wording.聽聽
In a dissenting opinion written by Justice Jennifer Brunner for the three (3) Ohio Supreme Court members in the minority, she stated:
鈥淲e should be requiring a nearly complete redrafting of what is perhaps the most stunningly stilted ballot language that Ohio voters will have ever seen . ..
鈥淭his court鈥檚 role is to ensure that the ballot language for the proposed amendment is not misleading, deceiving, or defrauding. The unwillingness of a majority of this court to act constitutionally fails Ohio voters.鈥
Major media entities across Ohio have run scathing editorials blasting Frank LaRose and the Ohio Ballot Board’s conduct. Their published editorials and articles are a warning about the desperate attempts that are being made by some partisan Ohio politicians to protect their gerrymandered election districts in the state.
So, GOP encouragement to vote No on Issue 1 to supposedly Stop gerrymandering is being done to confuse and deceive voters in an effort to ensure that gerrymandered districts continue in the state. The Ohio GOP’s actual actions document their many attempts not to Stop gerrymandering, but instead to protect this practice.
As a result of the conduct by the Ohio Ballot Board and the Ohio GOP, leadership of the Citizens Not Politicians Issue 1 initiative has established a simple message to citizens stating鈥 鈥淰ote YES on Issue 1 to Ban Gerrymandering in Ohio.鈥
Sanford Lubin is a retired publisher and senior editor of an Ohio media corporation. He is focused on initiatives supporting constitutional rights, the rule of law, and the protection of democracy. A high priority is ending gerrymandered election districts that suppress the will of voters.
Editor鈥檚 Note: The views expressed in this commentary piece do not necessarily the express the opinions of The 天堂影院.