You’re going to be hearing a lot about redistricting in the next several weeks — and you should pay attention. This is the year that new lines are drawn for both the legislative and congressional districts — and Ohio’s current maps are among the worst in the country for splitting up communities, sprawling over unnecessarily large areas and serving partisan politicians’, not voters’, interests.
Since then, voters have passed two ballot issues reforming the process — for legislative districts in 2015 and congressional districts in 2018. Whether the politicians tasked with creating new maps follow the process is an open question. Currently the redistricting commission is holding citizen hearings around the state, and many have commented on the inconvenient hours (during the week and business hours) and the fact that only one of the five Republicans on the omission bothered to show up (Auditor Keith Faber came to Cleveland, while the others sent representatives; governor Mike DeWine was at a Bengals training amp according to the Cincinnati Inquirer).
Fair Districts Ohio, led by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and Common Cause Ohio, has been working hard to get citizens engaged and holding the mapmakers accountable to following the rules: to drawing maps that don’t unfairly benefit a political party or an incumbent through notorious tricks that have at times even split single houses in two districts.
To that end they’ve launched a map drawing competition, inviting people to submit their own maps based on the criteria established by the ballot issues.
“We are bringing people power to the redistricting process,” says Jen Miller, Executive Director of League of Women Voters of Ohio. “It was Ohio voters who demanded change through the ballot box in 2015 and 2018, and now it’s time for the people of Ohio to hold mapmakers accountable to the letter and spirit of those reforms. We are calling on everyone to do their part: draw your own map, attend a public hearing, or get your community group involved.”
“Citizen-created maps offer a road map for the official mapmakers,” says Common Cause Ohio executive director Catherine Turcer. “In previous competitions, citizen mapmakers created more compact and competitive districts that focused on keeping communities together.”
In fact, a competition in 2011 elicited 32 maps, which were ranked by how fair and representative they were. The final map produced by the political mapmakers in Columbus was ranked below all of them, by far the worst. And that’s how we elect our lawmakers.
For the full rules, criteria and information on how to submit, go here. There are cash prizes for the best maps too, although nothing like the $60 million former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder won in a bribery scheme for a coal/nuclear plant bailout that would likely not have been possible without heavily gerrymandered legislative maps. But then he also won an indictment and arrest and possible prison term.
fairdistrictsohio.org/mapcompetition