Following the 2020 census, Ohio became victim of one of the nation's most relentless gerrymandering efforts: Republicans enacted rigged maps, judges struck them down for violating the state constitution, and Republicans simply passed new gerrymanders—a process they repeated over and over again until they ran out the clock and ensured Ohio would use illegal districts last year. But one Republican official became an unlikely hero by pushing back against her own party's assault on democracy, and she's at it once more with a plan to end the GOP's power to pass unfair maps for good.
That reformer is Maureen O'Connor, who until this year was chief justice of Ohio's Supreme Court and had repeatedly sided with the court's three Democratic members and against her trio of Republican colleagues to strike down these flawed maps—five times for state legislature and twice for Congress. O'Connor and her fellow advocates are still finalizing their reform proposal, but they are planning to use a ballot initiative in 2024 to create a truly independent redistricting commission in place of Ohio's broken bipartisan board that tilts heavily to the GOP.
Similar redistricting reforms in other states, such as one Michigan adopted in 2018, have entailed placing a citizen-led initiative on the ballot to circumvent opposition from GOP lawmakers and create a commission on which elected officials, party operatives, and lobbyists cannot serve or hand-pick commissioners. Instead, ordinary citizens, including independents and members of both parties, would be selected through a nonpartisan process to draw maps while following statistical requirements to treat both parties equally, along with other good-government criteria.
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