Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost rejected a petition Wednesday that tries to amend the state Constitution by creating a 15-member citizen-appointed panel to draw state legislative and congressional maps, claiming that the language lacks clarity and accuracy.
The amendment, submitted by the Ohio coalition known as Citizens not Politicians, aiming for the November 2024 presidential election, looks to repeal Articles XI and XIX of the Ohio Constitution and introduce Article XX to create a citizen-led redistricting commission and remove that power from the Ohio Redistricting Commission.
The Ohio Redistricting Commission is a seven-member body created to draw districts for the Ohio House and Senate.
Under the proposed constitutional amendment, current and former politicians, political party officials, lobbyists, and certain large political donors would be prohibited from serving on the new “Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission.” The commission would consist of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents from across the state and it would be prohibited from drawing districts that favor one party or politician over the others.
According to Yost, his role in the petition process is to “determine whether the summary is a fair and truthful representation of the proposed statute.” Yost said he determined this petition failed to meet this requirement due to a “lack of clarity and accuracy.”
A response letter to the petitioners said, “The decision underscores the importance of precise, comprehensive, and unbiased summaries to enable voters to make informed decisions.”
Citizens not Politicians, responded to Yost’s rejection of their amendment, saying that they believe the summary is accurate but will review Yost’s guidance and make changes.
“We believe our summary was accurate. But we will review the Attorney General’s guidance, will make necessary adjustments, and will collect new signatures with our broad, statewide, nonpartisan coalition of partners to refile as soon as possible because it’s time for citizens and not politicians to draw Ohio’s legislative map,” Citizens not Politicians said.
John Fortney, a spokesman for Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) and the Ohio Senate Republicans, told The Ohio Star that commissions are never truly independent, and if the amendment passes Ohioans would be replacing elected officials with citizens who are unaccountable to the public.
“So-called citizen-led commissions are anything but that. They are proxy votes and puppets of partisan special interest groups like (former Democratic Attorney General) Eric Holder’s NDRC (National Democratic Redistricting Committee),” Fortney told The Star.
Last year, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected maps produced by Ohio’s Redistricting Commission on numerous occasions.
The Ohio Supreme Court rejected the more recent of two congressional maps created by Republicans in July. Ohio used the earlier GOP-designed map for its 2022 primary and won’t use an updated one until 2024. The Redistricting Commission redraws the legislative and congressional maps every 10 years to reflect demographic changes following the U.S. Census.
Republican state legislators appealed the Supreme Court ruling on congressional redistricting to the U.S. Supreme Court in October.
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a summary judgment, a decision made without listening to oral arguments, reversing the Ohio Supreme Court’s judgment from last July that the congressional districting process unfairly favored the Republican Party.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star, The Star News Network, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Dave Yost” Dave Yost.
