Ohio will turn more blue if redistricting ballot measure passes: election integrity advocates say

Ohio voters will decide in the general election whether to amend their state constitution to create a new redistricting commission, but election integrity advocates warn that the amendment will result in making the state more Democratic.

A proposed constitutional amendment is on the November ballot that could alter the makeup of Ohio’s state legislature in future elections. A similar constitutional amendment passed in Michigan in 2018, which resulted in giving Democrats control of the state legislature.

If passed, the proposed constitutional amendment, called Issue 1, would repeal sections of the state constitution regarding the current process for redistricting state legislative and congressional districts and replace them with about 16 pages of new language implementing the commission.

The ballot measure is being pushed by Citizens Not Politicians (CNP), an advocacy group funded by liberal, out-of-state organizations. CNP advertises that the amendment will create a commission made up of 15 members that are “Democratic, Republican, and Independent citizens who broadly represent the different geographic areas and demographics of the state.” Each of the three political categories will have five members on the commission.

The amendment will also “ban current or former politicians, political party officials and lobbyists from sitting on the Commission” and “require fair and impartial districts by making it unconstitutional to draw voting districts that discriminate against or favor any political party or individual politician,” according to CNP.

Ohio currently has a state legislative-dominant process for redistricting congressional districts and a politician commission for state legislative districts. In both 2012 and 2005, Ohio voters rejected non-politician redistricting commissions.

Supporters of the amendment include Ohio Democratic leadership in the state legislature, the Ohio Democratic Party, the Ohio Libertarian Party, the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Fund, Open Society Policy Center, Ohio NAACP, League of Women Voters of Ohio, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, and former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor (R).

However, despite the redistricting commission’s appearance of bipartisanship, election integrity advocates warn that the commission will result in redistricting that favors Democrats. Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead told Just the News on Friday that unlike the current requirement that districts be both contiguous and compact, the constitutional amendment just requires that the districts be contiguous.

The amendment replaces the “idea to draw maps that reflect whole communities,” and instead favors one party or the other by creating districts based on the “overall vote share” each of the two major parties have in elections, Snead said. It solves the “political geography problem” for Democrats since their voters tend to “live in concentrated areas,” he explained.

The commissioners on the redistricting commission are to be selected by four retired judges, two from each major political party, with assistance from “a professional search firm,” according to the amendment. However, this makes the selection process “completely bureaucratic,” Snead said, as elected officials are removed from it.

Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust (APT), told Just the News on Friday that “none of the members” of the commission “are elected,” and that while politicians and registered lobbyists are prohibited from becoming commissioners, political activists are not. Democrats gaining more political control in Ohio is “not speculation,” Sutherland said, since it “happened in Michigan, which was a red state.”

In 2018, Michigan voters passed a constitutional amendment that moved the power of redistricting from the state legislature to a redistricting commission. “Because of these ballot measures, and how they shored up the vote, it’s the first time Democrats” have control over the state legislature “in many years,” Sutherland added. “Now, Michigan is a blue/purple state.”

Since 1992, Ohio has had 26 years of Republican trifectas in state government, with only seven years in which Democrats controlled the governorship and/or state House.

In 2022, Michigan’s state legislature became majority Democratic. Before that election, Democrats had not won the state Senate since 1984, while Republicans had led the state House for all but three legislative sessions going back to 1994.

When the commission “drew the state legislature maps, Democrats picked up four seats in each chamber in 2022,” since they “took black voters out of Detroit, and put them in suburban/rural districts,” Snead said. “Those maps were thrown out because of illegal racial gerrymandering,” he explained. A panel of three federal judges ruled last December that the districts had to be redrawn.

Snead noted that Michigan is competitive now that the districts are redrawn, but that “at best,” it will be a “very tight legislature.” Sutherland added that it costs “two to three times as much” to flip seats from one political party to the other.

CNP, which is pushing the constitutional amendment, has received more than $6 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the single largest contributor to the group.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund, a secretive liberal dark money group that has given more than $1 billion to liberal causes and groups since it began in 2009, according to a report released Monday by APT. The fund has received at least $243 million from Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, a left-wing donor who lives in Wyoming.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund “has funneled nearly $23 million and counting” into ballot initiatives this election cycle, according to APT’s report. Since 2014, the Sixteen Thirty Fund has poured more than $115 million into 25 states, with Michigan and Ohio receiving the most funds. Michigan has received almost $34 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund while Ohio has taken in nearly $21 million.

In June, Ohio enacted a law banning foreign nationals from donating to state ballot issue campaigns, including green card holders. The law has been challenged in court, but earlier this month, the federal Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled in favor of the statute, staying a preliminary injunction against that law.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund gave $6 million to CNP on May 23, the same day Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced a special legislative session to pass the law banning foreign nationals from donating to state ballot issue campaigns.

CNP’s fact-checks claim that “Foreign contributions are already prohibited under Ohio law. Our campaign has not and will not accept contributions from foreign nationals. This has always been the law in Ohio, and we fully comply with it.”

CNP told Just the News on Tuesday: "Issue 1 requires transparency and public input at multiple stages, providing a direct way for citizens to engage in shaping fair districts. Under our broken system, politicians and lobbyists draw lines in secret — that’s what will become illegal. And unlike politicians who are influenced by party agendas, the commission would be required to act in the public’s best interest, making redistricting more accountable and less subject to political gamesmanship.

"Issue 1 empowers Ohio citizens by putting redistricting in the hands of an independent commission, removing the partisan politicians who have repeatedly ignored court rulings and drawn gerrymandered districts to protect their own power. What could be more unaccountable than legislators from gerrymandered districts drawing their own maps behind closed doors and then ignoring seven different court rulings about their illegal maps?

"Ohio’s Issue 1 builds on and improves upon other states’ policies. Issue 1 explicitly requires compliance with the Voting Rights Act above all other criteria, and includes more robust guidelines to prohibit racial gerrymandering. Additionally, the multi-partisan selection process and strict criteria for commissioner qualifications in Ohio are designed to avoid the kinds of legal challenges seen in other states. Our focus remains on ensuring that every Ohioan has an equal say in the political process, without districts being manipulated by politicians.

"Foreign contributions have been prohibited in Ohio for years — whatever politicians trying to protect the status quo may say to distract voters. They were illegal before this summer’s special session, and are still illegal, and the Citizens Not Politicians campaign has always followed the law. Issue 1 supporters come from a broad, diverse coalition, including Ohioans across the political spectrum, united in the desire to end gerrymandering and restore fair representation."