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Whatever our political leanings, most of us believe in fairness, and regarding the electoral process that underlies our democracy, fairness would suggest that representation in elected bodies should reflect the votes cast by citizens. Ohio is a politically divided state, with Republicans holding an average 54%/46% advantage in the popular vote in recent state-wide elections, yet they currently hold a two-to-one advantage in U.S. congressional seats (10/5) and in the Ohio House of Representatives (67/32) and a more than three-to-one advantage in the Ohio Senate (26/7).
They have used their supermajorities to override the veto of their most extreme legislation by fellow Republican, Gov. Mike DeWine. This situation is the result of jerrymandering, the drawing of electoral districts to favor one party, a tactic practiced historically by both parties, but most recently by Republicans, as the current breakdown of elected offices shows.
Recent attempts to correct this abuse have failed. Most recently, a Republican-controlled electoral commission repeatedly submitted electoral maps that were subsequently ruled unconstitutional by a Republican-majority Ohio Supreme Court, running out the clock until a federal judge intervened, ruling that the old, jerrymandered maps had to be used because there was no longer time to change them before the election.
Republican officials are combatting current reform efforts with a campaign of misinformation because they see jerrymandering as favoring them, without considering that it could be used against them when political winds change. The latest reform movement is led by Maureen O’Connor, retired chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, a Republican who opposes her own party on this issue because she sees it not as a partisan issue but as a matter of fairness. The proposed constitutional amendment that she has helped bring to the November ballot would end jerrymandering by taking redistricting away from politicians and giving it to a non-partisan commission of Ohio citizens, along with guidelines to ensure fairness. Voters of every political persuasion should support this amendment so that going forward it will be the citizens who choose their representatives rather than the politicians who choose their voters.
Don Monson
Mount Vernon
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