Ohio Supreme Court rejects 4th legislative maps
The court struck down the latest maps in a 4-3 decision on Thursday.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court has once again ruled new maps by the Ohio Redistricting Commission for the state’s new legislative districts are unconstitutional and new ones must be done by next month.
The court struck down the latest maps in a 4-3 decision on Thursday and ordered new maps must be submitted by May 6.
The redistricting commission voted 4-3 along mostly partisan lines on March 28 to revive a set of slightly altered legislative maps already rejected by the Supreme Court earlier in the month.
Four Republicans — Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Senate President Matt Huffman, House Speaker Bob Cupp, and Gov. Mike DeWine — voted in favor of the tweaked maps.
Republican State Auditor Keith Faber joined state Sen. Vernon Sykes, an Akron Democrat, and Rep. Allison Russo, the top House Democrat, in rejecting the maps.
By passing the maps, the commission set aside the efforts of two independent mapmakers paid $450 an hour over four days to draw new maps in work viewed step-by-step online.
Throughout that day, the redistricting commission awaited final results from its two independent mapmakers who worked through the weekend on new maps.
Late in the afternoon, the commission reversed course and voted 5-2 to revive maps previously declared unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court and make some adjustments to them in the hopes of fixing problems identified by the court.
The state Supreme Court rejected the previous three sets of Ohio House and Senate maps drawn by the panel, ruling in a 4-3 vote each time that the plans were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to unduly favor Republicans.
Ohioans overwhelmingly supported a 2015 constitutional amendment that mandated the redistricting commission at least attempt to avoid partisan favoritism and to proportionally distribute districts to reflect Ohio’s 54% Republican, 46% Democratic split.
The latest maps, created by GOP staffers, came closer to the 54%-46% target by decreasing the number of competitive districts that favor Democrats, Republicans said.