This article describes how the courts and judges fit into the Citizens Not Politicians proposed redistricting amendment and lays out the roles they would play if the amendment were to be approved by Ohio voters in November. It provides a quick debrief of the previous redistricting efforts, explains the citizen-led ballot initiative legal procedural rules, and provides additional resources for a deeper dive.
Remember when the Ohio Supreme Court called the Ohio Redistricting Commission to task for drawing unfair voting districts? Do you remember how the commission ignored the Ohio Supreme Court? The commission dragged its feet and kept creating partisan gerrymanders and, after an exhausting fight, we still don’t have fair maps.
Ohio voters put good rules in the Ohio Constitution in 2015 and 2018 but elected officials failed to honor the voters’ wishes and the Ohio Constitution. Will a third try at redistricting reform do the trick?
…Introducing the Citizens Not Politicians Amendment!
Led by former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor (pictured above), Fair Districts Ohio, and other key partners, Citizens Not Politicians is a citizen-led ballot initiative to amend Ohio’s Constitution and end gerrymandering. The amendment would ban lobbyists and politicians from the redistricting process and instead establish the Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission, empowering a group of 15 citizens to draw fair districts using an open and transparent process. Read the whole petition here.
Importantly, the amendment is also designed to stop the judicial merry-go-round. With that, the legal process of map-making would look different.
Taking redistricting out of the hands of politicians and the rigamarole out of the courts is the first step to fair voting districts and meaningful elections.
Quick Debrief
Nationally, Ohio is recognized as one of the worst states for gerrymandering. In fact, it ranks as one of the top ten most gerrymandered states in the country.
For the last two years, the redistricting process was overseen by the Ohio Redistricting Commission made up of seven elected officials, five Republicans and two Democrats.
Under the current system, legal challenges to maps drawn by the Commission go directly to the Ohio Supreme Court, which has exclusive jurisdiction. Over the past two years there were many such challenges. Following the 2021 map-making process, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down state legislative voting districts as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders five times, and congressional districts twice.
The long, drawn-out saga ended in September 2023 when the Commission unanimously approved new House and Senate maps with the two Democrats on the Commission joining the five Republicans to approve clearly gerrymandered maps that protect incumbents. The maps were drawn by the politicians in secret.
In November 2023, in a 4-3 ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court chose to leave the Statehouse redistricting maps in place for the 2024-2030 election cycles. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy wrote “The bipartisan adoption of the September 2023 plan is a changed circumstance that makes it appropriate to relinquish our continuing jurisdiction over these cases.”
These circumstances culminated in signature collection to get the proposed amendment on November’s ballot.
The Role of Retired Judges: Commission & Special Masters Selection
Before any mapmaking begins, there is a selection process for both a citizen redistricting commission and a pool of “Special Masters”, credentialed experts to expedite legal challenges, with retired judges playing a role in executing each one.
The proposal would create the Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission (“Commission”), a 15-member citizen panel of five Republicans, five Democrats and five Independents representing a geographic and demographic cross-section of the state. Members would be selected by a Bipartisan Screening Panel (“Panel”) made up of four Ohio retired judges—two affiliated with the First Major Political Party and two affiliated with the Second Major Political Party.
Retired judges who apply to be part of the Bipartisan Screening Panel would be required to complete a form that provides sufficient information to enable Ballot Board members to assess each judge’s qualifications and ability to be impartial and competent.
The four retired judges would be selected by the four legislative appointees of the Ohio Ballot Board: the biggest political party (in this case, the Republicans) selects a pool of eight candidates from which the second party (the Democrats) select two. Then the process is reversed. Democrats select a pool of eight candidates, and the Republicans pick two from that pool.
The selected judges then review the applications for commissioners, screening out politicians and lobbyists, and select 45 finalists, 15 from each pool (Republicans, Democrats, and Independents). From that group, the Panel randomly picks six commissioners (two from each pool) and then those six choose the final nine commission members.
The Panel is also responsible for the initial selection of “Special Masters” or cartographers to help assess the maps in the event of a legal challenge. The Panel will create a pool of at least six special masters who are willing to serve if necessary. Beyond having the knowledge and ability to analyze district maps, the candidates must not be associated with any political party.
The Redesigned Legal Process
If the Citizens Not Politicians amendment passes in November, the redistricting legal landscape would look much different than it currently does. The Ohio Supreme Court would still retain exclusive jurisdiction over challenges to the new voting districts, but adjudication would require an expedited review process.
Before the case is ever heard by the Ohio Supreme Court, two Special Masters are selected by the Court from the pool established by the Panel of retired judges to review the challenged district or districts and issue a report as to whether the commission failed to draw compliant maps.
Challenges to a redistricting plan or the proposed voting districts can be filed in the Ohio Supreme Court by any Ohio voter within 10 days of the Commission issuing its final report. Only the Commission will have the legal authority to respond to any challenges.
There are several possible outcomes:
If there are no objections to the report, then the Court would issue an order adopting the special masters’ report and determination. This is a final, non-reviewable decision.
If the Court finds that the Commission’s map was not compliant with the requirements in the Ohio Constitution, then the Commission has to make the necessary adjustments within seven days and give the revised proposal to the Court and Special Masters. If the Commission follows through on making the constitutionally prescribed adjustments, then the Supreme Court would issue an order adopting the revised redistricting proposal. This is a final, non-reviewable decision.
If the Commission misses the seven-day deadline or the Court concludes that they failed to adequately remedy the violations, the Court would then order the Special Masters to make the minimal adjustments necessary to bring the proposed districts into compliance. The changes made by the Special Masters are not reviewable by any court and the Court would issue a final order adopting the Special Masters’ adjusted redistricting plan.
Based on this new judicial process, we can see that the legal back and forth that has gone on over the last two years would no longer be in play.
Citizen-led Ballot Initiative Process
413,487 valid signatures are needed from Ohio voters to place Citizens Not Politicians on the ballot–ten percent of the number of votes cast for the office of governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. In addition to the ten percent threshold, petition signatures must be obtained from at least 44 of the 88 counties in Ohio. From each of the 44 counties, there must be signatures equal to at least 5 percent of the gubernatorial vote in that county in the last election.
On July 1, the campaign delivered 731,306 signatures for the amendment from every county in Ohio. Republican, Democrat, and Independent Ohio voters unloaded 810 boxes of petitions from four trucks and delivered them to the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office for verification. Hundreds of citizens from across Ohio celebrated the accomplishment in a rally at the Ohio Statehouse.
The amendment will now proceed to voters on the November ballot. On July 23, Secretary of State Frank LaRose certified 535,005 signatures out of the 731,306 submitted, an impressive overall validity rate of 73.2%. The campaign made the 5% certification rate in 58 counties. Next up, the Ohio Ballot Board must convene by August 22 or 23 to propose ballot language and give the amendment an issue number.
Conclusion
Gerrymandering undermines proportional representation and leads to political stagnation and ineffective policy. This redistricting amendment is simple: no politicians, no judicial games. Just an open, transparent, representative process.
For a Deeper Dive:
Fair Districts Ohio: History of Redistricting
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University: Gerrymandering Explained
Brennan Center for Justice: What Ohio’s ‘Citizens Not Politicians’ Redistricting Amendment Would Do
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