Ohioans: Give Us Fair Maps Drawn Through a Fair Process

For Immediate Release:
September 1, 2021
Contact:
Fabiola Rodriguez
rodriguez@redistrictingaction.org

AOTL Ohio Volunteers Out in Force at 10-City Hearing Tour 

Despite a schedule designed to limit public input, Ohioans from communities across the state turned out in incredible numbers at the Redistricting Commission’s public hearings last week to demand fair maps drawn through a fair process.  In yet another sign Republicans are trying to curb public engagement, yesterday the Ohio Redistricting Commission announced they will release a proposed map and hold three additional public input hearings over the next two weeks but refused to share dates or times or locations with the public.

“Today marks Ohio’s first map deadline and the Commission appears poised to blow right past it without fulfilling its constitutional duty to propose a map or host public input hearings on it,” said Katy Shanahan, AOTL Ohio State Director. “And unfortunately all we got out of the Commission yesterday was an announcement that we will - at some point - see a map and have additional hearings. That’s not good enough. This process to date isn’t what we demanded in our reform measures or what the Constitution requires.”

Ohio's constitutional redistricting reforms require public engagement at every step of the redistricting process - including before and after proposed maps have been introduced. 

In preparation for the mapless hearing tour last week, All On The Line hosted eight different testimony training sessions with nearly 230 activists, about how best to express how their communities had been impacted by a decade’s worth of gerrymandering and how better to draw future districts to ensure maximized political representation. Despite the compressed hearing schedule, late public notice, and that all of the hearings were scheduled during work hours, nearly 165 submitted testimony to the Commission. 

Across the ten hearings, Ohioans spoke with a clear and consistent message. Close to 80 people spoke specifically about how to better incorporate and protect local communities of interest. The need for representational fairness state wide, so that election outcomes reflect the will of the voters, was mentioned nearly 120 times. Close to 140 people called for reversing the packing and cracking of major metropolitan areas that occurred during the previous redistricting process. Almost everyone spoke to the need for more transparency from the Commission.

“The sheer diversity of Ohio’s communities and geographies makes our state some of the most fertile ground for a competitive democracy in America. Thus, we should accept no less than 44 Democratic House seats and 14 Democratic Senate seats in order to work towards achieving justice and accountability from our Ohio Legislature,” said Kelly Hall from AOTL partner organization Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio.

“Ohioans overwhelmingly support fair districts for the state legislature meaning that we are saying with our voice and our vote that we will no longer live in districts that are drawn to redline Ohio’s voters’ choice,” said Erika White, ⁦President CWA Local 4319 and AOTL activist.

“Moving forward, we need to uncrack and unpack our communities so that communities have political power. … To ensure the promise of democracy is more real for all of us - particularly for members of traditionally marginalized communities - we need district maps that allow those communities to have real access to power and a real political voice,” said Mattie White of the Dayton Unit of the Ohio NAACP, an AOTL partner organization.

AOTL Ohio will continue its advocacy for more information about when we can expect to see a Commission map that is fair and representative of Ohio’s communities and when additional public input hearings will take place.

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