Today, Ohio Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko (D-Richmond Heights) responded to the Commission’s failure to adopt a new set of constitutional and fair state legislative maps by the May 6 Ohio Supreme Court deadline. Amid loud chants for fair maps from Ohioans, the majority of commissioners instead voted to adopt the third set of legislative maps, which were already ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court on March 16.
“I’m disgusted that majority Commissioners have once again chosen to defy an Ohio Supreme Court order and ignore the millions of voters who overwhelmingly passed constitutional reforms to end gerrymandering,” Yuko said. “Ohioans deserve fair districts, not maps that have already been ruled unconstitutional by our state’s highest court.”
During today’s meeting, Democrats moved to adopt a modified version of the Ohio House and Senate maps drafted by the independent mapmakers in March. The independent state legislative maps are more compact than any maps adopted by the Commission, follow the requirements in the Constitution and the court orders, and reflect the statewide voting preferences of Ohioans.
In its last ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court emphasized that the independent mapmakers’ plan was a good starting point for the Commission to comply with the Court’s order. Though Republicans could not identify a single constitutional violation in the proposed plan, majority commissioners nevertheless rejected the motion to adopt their plan.
Since the Ohio Redistricting Commission failed to comply with the Supreme Court’s order, the Court could choose to hold the Commissioners in contempt.
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