Tue 6/15 @ noon
Five or six years ago, I attended a forum with a speaker who was an expert in drawing the congressional and legislative maps by which we elect our representatives. He warned that without new rules for redistricting, with computers now able to identify voters down to the house level, the next redistricting cycle — 2021 — would be the first in which voters would have literally no say in who they elected, due to extreme gerrymandering.
Many argued that we had already arrived there in Ohio. In the last cycle — 2011 — the maps resulted in 12 Republican districts and four Democratic, even though in virtually every election, the statewide vote veered only a few points from 50/50. And not one district was competitive enough that a seat changed hands — for the entire decade.
That led to voters passing reforms in how district lines are drawn, reforming the process for legislative redistricting in 2015 and congressional redistricting in 2018 — both times by more than 70% of the vote.
With new districts being drawn this year, what results are we likely to see? That’s the topic of a City Club of Cleveland forum called “No More ‘Snake on the Lake’: The Future of Redistricting in Ohio (The “Snake on the Lake” is Oh-09, Marcy Kaptur’s district which extends from Toledo to western Cuyahoga County, drawn to combine two Democratic districts and eliminate either Kaptur or her primary opponent, Dennis Kucinich, the unlucky loser. Under the new rules, that district is illegal).
The speakers include three people deeply immersed in the fight for fair redistricting: League of Women Voters of Ohio executive director Jen Miller; senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project Alora Thomas-Lundborg, and FairVote senior fellow David Daley, the author of Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy. Karen Kasler, statehouse news bureau chief for Ohio Public Radio and Television, moderates.
The virtual forum is free to listen to. Go here. If you have questions, tweet them to @TheCityClub or text 330.541.5794.
no-more-snake-on-the-lake-the-future-of-redistricting-in-ohio