Source: http://www.fairdistrictsohio.org/blog/archives/10-2017
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 12:16:56+00:00

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On Thursday, October 26, the Congressional Redistricting Working Group held its first public hearing.
This bipartisan, joint committee is composed of State Representatives Kirk Schuring (R-Canton) and Jack Cera (D-Bellaire) and Senators Matt Huffman (R-Lima) and Vernon Sykes (D-Akron). Huffman and Sykes were the co-sponsors of the state redistricting reform measure approved by voters as state Issue 1 in 2015.
The Working Group is tasked with gathering public input on congressional redistricting reform and proposing reform recommendations. The legislature is then expected to turn those reform proposals into a piece of legislation to be debated and voted on by the legislature in time to put it before voters, perhaps as soon as the May 2018 primary election.
During the Working Group’s first public forum on October 26, they heard more than two hours of testimony from witnesses, all of whom argued in favor of reform. Watch a video recording of the hearing here.
Witnesses included voter rights and Fair Districts campaign leaders and volunteers from around Ohio.
Read some of the highlights in news coverage from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, and Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau.
The October 26 hearing room was packed with supporters of the Fair Districts campaign, many wearing Fair Districts t-shirts and buttons or carrying signs. THANK YOU for helping show legislators how much ending gerrymandering means to Ohio!
Join us at the Statehouse for the next hearing on Wed. Nov. 1 at 6pm! We want to pack the room once again with Fair Districts supporters – wear your t-shirts and buttons.
Present testimony at the hearing. Stories are an important part of our effort. Here are some ideas -- Tell legislators why you support Fair Districts. Share how gerrymandering impacts your community and voters all over Ohio. Share a favorite story from collecting petition signatures about what reasons your neighbors signed. If you want to testify, email Rep. Kirk Schuring who is serving as the chair of the Working Group at Rep48@ohiohouse.gov or by call 614-752-2438. Please send Bring 20 copies of your testimony.
Can’t come in person or don’t care for public speaking? Send written testimony! Please send your testimony to Rep. Kirk Schuring at Rep48@ohiohouse.gov.
Submit a letter to the editor of your local paper, calling on the legislature to pass reform. The public hearings this week and next are a perfect opportunity to write a letter to the editor talking about why congressional redistricting reform is good for your community.
Photos taken by Jan Underwood of the League of Women Voters of Greater Dayton.
Ohio has a long history of redistricting reform with citizen-led efforts on the ballot in 1981, 2005, and 2012. In 2015, Ohioans overwhelmingly supported state legislative redistricting reform.
Many of us are familiar with the hard work of Joan Lawrence, a Republican state representative (1982 – 1999) from Galena. In light of the upcoming hearings on redistricting reform by the Congressional Redistricting Reform Working Group, it is worth taking a look back at another proponent, Governor James A. Rhodes.
"Gerrymandering is not a Republican or a Democrat problem. It is a fundamental problem with government that must be corrected."
Rhodes’ sentiment rings true and it is time to end the unfair practice of gerrymandering and focus on reforms that focus on the voters and creating a more robust democracy.
On October 26 and November 1, the Congressional Redistricting Reform Working Group is holding public hearings on how best to address congressional redistricting reform. The first meeting on Thursday, October 26 is at 10:00am and the Wednesday, November 1 meeting is at 6:00pm. Both hearings will be held in Room 313.
The Ohio General Assembly is finally taking up congressional redistricting! The legislature's redistricting working group has announced two dates when they will hear public testimony on congressional redistricting reform at 10:00 am on Thursday, October 26 and at 6pm on Wednesday, November 1 and we want you to be there. Both sessions are in Room 313 of the Ohio Statehouse.
Thanks to thousands of committed Fair Districts volunteers across the state collecting over 152,000 signatures, the legislature is taking Ohioans’ desire for meaningful redistricting reform seriously, forming a bipartisan working group to consider the issue. The Fair Districts coalition has always supported a legislative solution, provided it includes elements to ensure a fair and bipartisan process, but we need to be visible at these meetings to remind legislators of the will of the people they represent.
That’s why we are asking you to come to the Statehouse on Oct. 26 and Nov. 1, decked out in all your best Fair Districts shirts, buttons, bags, and spirit!
The legislature will also be hearing from members of the public about why redistricting reform is so important, and why it should feature key elements the Fair Districts = Fair elections coalition supports. If you feel strongly about this issue and can express why it matters to your community, you might be a great person to testify! Tell us about yourself and why you are committed to slaying the gerrymander and someone from the campaign may be in touch about presenting testimony, in person or in writing.
If you have questions about the legislative hearing please send an email to ohiofairdistricts@gmail.com or call 614-259-8388.
If you can’t make it to Columbus for either of the forums, don’t despair – you can still take action!
Collect more signatures - Early Vote and Election Day are the perfect times to collect signatures of registered, engaged voters. Sign up to help out in your community on Election Day and during early voting, or get out to local fall festivals and football games. The more strength and support we show in our signature totals, the more legislators know Ohioans care about redistricting.
Contact legislators - Let your representatives know that you support redistricting reform featuring key elements to ensure a fair and bipartisan process. Use information from the letter sent by the campaign to call your Senator and Representative and make sure they know what characteristics you support.
Text DISTRICT to 864237 for redistricting updates.
By texting DISTRICT you agree to receive mobile updates from the Fair Districts = Fair Elections Coalition. Reply with HELP for help, STOP to quit. Message & data rates may apply.
As members of the Fair Districts = Fair Elections Coalition, we were very pleased to learn that leadership is in discussions about congressional redistricting reform. That has been our goal all along, to reach a bipartisan solution that can be put before voters.
We are writing to express our willingness and hope that we can work with you in finding a solution that serves the interest of all Ohioans.
Based on our decades of work in this area, and talking with thousands of voters across the state, we have identified the following as essential criteria for meaningful congressional reform.
True bipartisan support must be required for a map to be enacted, with no alternative option for approval by a single party. We prefer that redistricting should be the responsibility of the bipartisan Ohio Redistricting Commission, as established through Issue 1, which was supported by over 71% of the voters, and by votes of 81-7 in the Ohio House and 28-1 in the Senate. But if it is decided that redistricting should remain under the control of the legislature, it is essential that a Congressional redistricting plan may only be adopted if it is approved by a majority of each party in both chambers.
No plan shall favor or disfavor a political party or candidate, and district maps should permit fair representation of voters from all parties. Districts shall not be drawn to artificially favor or disfavor a party or candidate but should instead reflect community voter preferences over recent elections.
Districts should keep communities whole by not splitting up counties, cities, or townships, in that order, from largest to smallest. Splitting counties accounts for a substantial amount of Ohio’s gerrymandering problem, and voters from Summit County to Mercer County are fed up with it.
The process should be transparent and allow public input on proposed maps before a vote.
We have always supported a legislative solution and continue to do so. However, we will carefully scrutinize any proposal to ensure it puts forward real reform, not just pay lip service to the problem.
We owe it to the 152,000-plus verified voters who have signed our Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio initiative and to the nearly 3,000 volunteers on the ground across Ohio working for Fair Districts, to make sure that voters have the opportunity to vote for real reform. While we are eager to work with you to reach a mutually agreeable bipartisan solution, we will continue moving forward with a citizen initiative in order to make sure reform is enacted before the next time Congressional districts are redrawn.
Today, the Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio announced that more than 152,000 signatures have been collected by redistricting reformers all over Ohio. The following counties have reached the 5% threshold for validation: Adams, Athens, Clark, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Franklin, Greene, Hamilton, Licking, Mercer, Morrow, Portage, Richland and Summit.
"A big thank you to all the volunteers collecting signatures," said Catherine Turcer of Common Cause Ohio. "Direct democracy is a big job and together, one signature at a time we are working hard to improve elections and representational democracy."
The following counties need fewer than 100 signatures to hit the minimum five percent: Champaign County (15), Fayette (47), Union (92), Vinton (83 ), and Wyandot (23).
Early Vote and Election Day are the perfect times to collect signatures of voters. Sign up to slay the gerrymander on Election Day.
And we want your stories! If you have tips or suggestions for signature-collections, send us an email at ohiofairdistricts@gmail.com.
Check out this interactive graphic​.
Last week the Supreme Court heard Gill v. Whitford, a gerrymandering suit led by retired law professor Bill Whitford challenging the constitutionality of Wisconsin’s state legislative map. The map was passed by a Republican-dominated legislature after the 2010 census. Many election law experts consider Gill to be a landmark case in the making that will decide the future of gerrymandering in modern American politics. Sensing the tremendous stakes, big names in law, politics, media, and celebrity descended upon the nation’s capital during oral arguments.
The biggest issue the court is grappling with is whether partisan gerrymander cases are even justiciable, meaning that the courts have the authority and ability to hear and adjudicate them. Courts can already hear racial gerrymander cases with authority under the 14th Amendment. A victory for Wisconsin (technically, the Wisconsin Elections Commission) could potentially close the door to such challenges forever, leaving political gerrymandering as a perfectly legal practice with politics being the only supposed remedy.
A similar case like this was brought in 2004 when Vieth v. Jeubelirer challenged a Pennsylvania congressional map. In that case, the Supreme Court declared political gerrymander cases nonjusticiable by claiming that courts have no real way of remedying them. However, this declaration did not become hard law because the Court could only manage a plurality decision (rather than a needed majority decision).
The reason for this was because Justice Anthony Kennedy voted with the plurality in Vieth but wrote his own opinion. Whereas the Court in Vieth opined that partisan gerrymander cases cannot be brought before a court, Kennedy wrote that they eventually could be if a “workable standard could be found” for the court to use in adjudicating them. The “workable standard” is the key to this year’s Gill case.
The Whitford plaintiffs believe they have found such a workable formula in the form of an independent mathematical analysis called “efficiency gap,” developed by University of Chicago law professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos and political scientist Eric McGhee. Efficiency gap measures “wasted votes,” defined as votes cast for a losing candidate or votes above the number needed to win a particular race.
The efficiency gap, simply put, is the ratio of wasted votes against the total votes cast. Whitford contends that if the efficiency gap becomes so egregious that a wide spectrum of election outcomes would yield similar results for one party, then unconstitutional gerrymandering may have occurred.
Gerrymandering is widely regarded as a terrible and destructive practice designed to deliberately eviscerate effective democracy in favor of one faction or another. But should software programs be the end-all judge of a constitutional issue?
Did the challengers sway Justice Kennedy this time around? Has Kennedy finally found the workable plaintiff in Gill that he did not have in Vieth a decade ago?
Justice Sonia Sotomayor tongue-tied the Wisconsin Legislature’s attorney, Erin Murphy, with one simple question: “How does [gerrymandering] help our system of government?” To Ms. Murphy’s credit, she was tasked with defending a nearly indefensible position.
Kennedy did not appear to tip his hand with his questions, but some have speculated that he is finally ready to see the court address the problem of political gerrymandering. Above The Law reported that Kennedy’s was heavily engaged during Whitford attorney Paul V. Smith’s presentation but asked no questions of the other side, suggesting that he may finally have found a proper plaintiff to tackle the gerrymandering issue.
Ultimately, most experts agree that the outcome of this case all boils down to Kennedy’s vote. Whether he has been persuaded is anyone’s guess. We’ll have to wait with much anticipation for that question to be answered. There is no doubt that the opinion will be (and should be) the nation’s top headline when it is finally published.
​Check out the official transcript of the oral arguments.
This morning, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a critical case that will impact the future of fair districts and fair elections.
What is the Gill v. Whitford case about?
Gill v. Whitford is one of the biggest cases the Supreme Court will hear this year and could change the way redistricting happens across the country.
The challenge at the center of this case is over whether the Wisconsin legislature went too far in 2011 when it drew lines that gave a huge advantage to one political party over the other.
While the US Supreme Court has said that extreme partisan gerrymandering may be unconstitutional, it has been difficult to prove because there is no test to measure how far is too far when it comes to partisan manipulation of the districts and the voters in those districts.
The Gill case could change that by establishing a way to assess the severity of partisan gerrymandering.
- The Campaign Legal Center has a full Gill v. Whitford case page here.
- The Brennan Center has a good explanation here.
- Scotusblog has additional coverage on its Gill v. Whitford case page here.
What does this mean for Ohio?
If the US Supreme Court uses this case to establish a legal standard for extreme partisan gerrymandering, it will apply to all states the next time district lines are redrawn after the 2020 Census.
Depending on the Court's ruling, it could prohibit the kind of extreme manipulation the Brennan Center documented in the "seven states that account for almost all of the bias" in the last round of redistricting: Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia.
While we are all eager to see how the Court rules, we don't have to wait to put a stop to gerrymandering. The Fair Districts = Fair Elections Coalition is working to enact new protections for fair districts in Ohio that will apply regardless of how the Court rules.
As of October 2, the Fair Districts campaign has collected 149,386 verified signatures to put congressional redistricting reform on the 2018 ballot. We are almost halfway to the total of 305,591 needed to qualify for the ballot.
How is your area doing? So far 14 counties have met the minimum number of signatures needed, dozens more are making good progress, and five counties need fewer than 100 signatures.
- Sign the Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio petition.
- Donate to the Fair Districts campaign.
- Volunteer to help collect signatures, verify petitions, or host a house party.

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