Petition training Jan. 11 and 16 for redistricting reform amendment
Several trainings are available in the next few days on how to engage Ohio voters and collect signatures to qualify the Citizens not Politicians constitutional amendment for Ohio’s November ballot. This amendment would ban current elected officials from Ohio’s redistricting commission and make the process far more transparent. Between now and early summer, supporters are working to collect 800,000 signatures from eligible Ohio voters to ensure that there are enough verified to put the measure on the ballot; 413,000 are needed. Click on the dates listed below to register.
- Signature Gathering Training, Thursday, Jan. 11, 6 pm (Ohio Environmental Council)
- Signature Gathering Training, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 12 pm (Ohio Environmental Council)
- Communication Training: Messaging for Signature Collection, Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 6 pm (League of Women Voters of Ohio)
Are you concerned about gerrymandering in Ohio? Sign up to help end it!
This blog has reported extensively on how gerrymandering produces legislation that goes against the views of the majority of Ohio voters on vital issues. “The Episcopal Church reaffirms that one person one vote means that the votes of all citizens of all races and ethnicities are fairly represented, counted and accounted for,” says Resolution 2018-D003 passed by General Convention. “We oppose any form of partisan gerrymandering which has the same effect of racial gerrymandering.”
Legislators from uncompetitive districts only have to answer to major donors and the partisan base in their districts, whose votes in the primary are what determines who’s elected in the general election. When either party has a veto-proof supermajority after drawing noncompetitive districts, the legislature can ignore other branches of government and public opinion, as we’ve seen so dramatically in the redistricting battle where the legislature defied repeated Ohio Supreme Court rulings in 2021-22. We will see this phenomenon again if the Legislature overrides Gov. DeWine’s veto of legislation banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
I’m teaming up with Lutheran deacon Nick Bates of Hunger Network in Ohio to organize faith-based teams at the city or county level to help get the Citizens Not Politicians amendment onto the November ballot. This is an opportunity to restore accountability and trust to democratic institutions in Ohio. I am hoping that confidence, fellowship, and joy will grow out of the work that people of faith do together on this campaign to ensure that future Ohio redistricting produces fair, representative districts. Please email me right away if you can pitch in!
We need:
- People to coordinate city-wide or county faith-based teams
- Speakers for events
- Petition circulators
- Office work including validating signatures
- Organize events
Civic groups including the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, the A. Philip Randolph League, and the Ohio Environmental Council all support this campaign. Developed by a bipartisan citizen team including Republican former Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, the amendment would create a new process for redistricting that prevents elected officials – who have a built-in conflict of interest to preserve their partisan majority – from serving on Ohio’s Redistricting Commission. It would also create a far more transparent process. If you read this blog during 2020-22, you will remember the prolonged impasse between the Ohio Supreme Court and Ohio’s Redistricting Commission – entirely composed of incumbent elected officials – who repeatedly defied the Court’s rulings ordering them to correct the excessive partisan gerrymandering and allow more public input. Since 2022, our elections have been conducted using state districts and Congressional districts which are unconstitutional.
SB 83 higher education bill referred to House Rules and Reference Committee
Senate Bill 83 has huge implications for the fate of education on diversity and equity, climate change, immigration, and other topics at Ohio’s public colleges and universities. SB 83 is one House vote away from being sent to the Governor’s desk. If Rules and Reference refers SB 83 to another committee like Finance, more hearings could take place before a floor vote.
This week please call or email Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens (R. Kitts Hill) and House Finance Committee Chair Jay Edwards (R. Nelsonville) with your views. Both represent communities including Ironton, Gallipolis, and Athens, in our diocese.
SB 83 would essentially ban mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at Ohio’s public universities and prohibit faculty from endorsing “controversial beliefs or policies” – defined as “any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy, including climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion,” allowing students to “reach their own conclusions about all controversial beliefs or policies.” Faculty and universities “shall not seek to indoctrinate any social, political, or religious point of view – ” in other words, they would have to present “both sides.”
The bill has other controversial provisions, and a huge number of faculty, students, and other concerned Ohioans submitted testimony, the overwhelming majority in opposition, at hearings held by the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee and the House Higher Education Committee. It was nevertheless reported out by both committees, passed by the Senate, and now awaits a vote by the Ohio House.
Advocacy briefings are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com.
