Ohio Supreme Court denies Democrats’ request to move the May election

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court has rejected a request from top Democratic state lawmakers who asked the court to move the May 3 primary election over ongoing delays in redistricting, the process of redrawing political maps.

The court rejected the request from House Minority Leader Allison Russo, of Upper Arlington, and Sen. Vernon Sykes, of Akron, in a brief, unanimous order on Thursday.

The majority opinion, issued as part of an ongoing legal case involving court approval of Ohio’s state legislative maps, was unsigned and didn’t offer a reason why the request was rejected.

But Justice Pat Fischer, a Republican, wrote a concurring opinion that said court rulings issued previously in the case made clear that the court lacks legal authority to move the election date. State law says only the state legislature can move the election date. The various groups challenging Ohio’s state legislative maps previously had asked the court to consider moving the date anyway to buy more time before the May election to allow various lawsuits challenging the state legislative maps to fully play out.

Fischer’s written opinion otherwise sharply criticized Russo and Sykes’s legal team, Cooper & Elliott in Columbus, for failing to mention in their motion the court’s previous denial of requests to change the election date.

Russo and Sykes filed a legal motion Tuesday asking the court to consider moving the election, citing in part a lawsuit from Republican activists that asks a federal court to restore a state legislative map that the Ohio Supreme Court rejected as unconstiutional earlier this month. The lawsuit is an effort to bypass the Ohio Supreme Court, which has rejected three sets of state legislative maps as unconstiutional under Ohio’s new anti-gerrymandering laws.

The federal case largely is based around the fact that there still are no legally approved maps for the May primary, even as early voting is set to begin on April 4. In the federal case, the Republican activists say approving the rejected map is the only way to ensure the May 3 primary election will happen on time, since Republican lawmakers have refused to postpone the election.

Meanwhile, the Ohio Redistricting Commission is working to approve new maps, which would be the fourth official plan, before a Monday deadline set by the Ohio Supreme Court.