The Issue With Issue 1

The Issue With Issue 1

BY TOM HACH

STATEWIDE - The election season, Ohioans will be voting on Issue 1. If passed, it will completely change the Ohio Constitution's provisions on how legislative districts for Congress and the Ohio General Assembly are redrawn every decade based on the US census.  You can find information on Issue 1 from the Ohio Secretary of State here.

Under Issue 1, all aspects of the map drawing process will be conducted by an appointed 15 member commission, who are not subject to voter approval.  Also, the verbiage of Issue 1 takes away the right to challenge the legislative maps in court, meaning Ohioans will have no option outside of the commission to legally address any grievances or concerns.

Additionally, Issue 1 requires specific demographic diversity criteria based on ethnicity, race and other attributes to be used when drawing legislative maps.  This means previous measures passed by with over 70% of the vote in 2015 and 2018 to ensure counties and communities were not divided between districts will be overridden. As a result, many counties and communities will need to be divided across multiple districts to meet these diversity requirements. 

Citizens Not Politicians  is behind the Issue 1 initiative and has raised over $20 million for promotion of the over 20 page addition to the Ohio Constitution.  Backing the measure are many groups from outside Ohio, including Washington DC-area based Sixteen Thirty Fund, Article IV, and Our American Future Foundation.  Opposing Issue 1 is Ohio Works, which has support from the Ohio Farms Bureau, The Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and other organizations.

Overview of Issue 1 Implementation

Under Issue 1, it takes many steps to get to legislative maps.  The process starts with the Ohio General Assembly appointing a Panel consisting of four retired judges, two Republican and two Democrat.  The Panel will develop and accept applications from the general public, and, with the assistance of a professional search firm, create a pool of 90 candidates.  These candidates will then have interviews, which will be broadcast to the public.  In addition, the public will be able to comment on the various candidates being considered.  The Panel will then, based on majority vote, narrow the field to 45 Finalists made up of 15 each Democrats, Republicans and Independents.

From the field of 45 Finalists, six (6) initial members, consisting of two (2) each Democrats, Republicans and Independents, will be randomly selected from the 45 finalists, and these six (6) will ultimately select the remaining nine (9) Commissioners to get the final 15 Commissioners  made  up of five each Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Details on how the Commission will approve legislative maps can be found in the ballot language here.

Proponents and opponents are spending well over $20 Million for ads which support each of their respective position.  Ultimately, Ohio voters will need to decide if the current redistricting process led by elected officials is better than a new process led by an unelected Commission members for whom the voters have no control.  Based on observational yard sign data, it appears Democrats are generally for Issue 1 and Republicans are generally against it, and Independents will be the deciding voters.





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