Ohio ballot board approves ballot summary that grossly misrepresents Citizens Not Politicians
On Friday, Aug. 16, the Ohio ballot board approved ballot language which describes the citizen-sponsored anti-gerrymandering proposal as a power grab which will produce – not prevent gerrymandering. The ballot language was written by Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who served on the redistricting commission that passed seven different maps in 2021-22 that were ruled unconstitutional for partisan gerrymandering by a bipartisan majority of the Ohio Supreme Court. The Citizens Not Politicians amendment would prohibit elected officials from serving on the redistricting commission. This graphic shows the extreme gerrymandering produced by the 2021-22 redistricting commission, all of whom were elected officials.
The Ohio Council of Churches and our Diocesan Council are among over 100 statewide and local civic and faith-based groups who have endorsed the Citizens Not Politicians amendment.
Amendment proponents, including Republican retired Ohio chief justice Maureen O’Connor, will immediately file suit with the Ohio Supreme Court to challenge the ballot board’s language as illegal. The Ohio constitution requires that summaries of proposed amendments “shall properly identify the substance of the proposal to be voted upon.” Ballot language will be held invalid if it “mislead[s], deceive[s], or defraud[s] the voters.”
Ohio law requires that “In preparing such a ballot title the secretary of state or the board shall give a true and impartial statement of the measures in such language that the ballot title shall not be likely to create prejudice for or against the measure.” The ballot title written by the ballot board implies that the amendment creates a redistricting commission that can disregard voters. Here’s the wording: “Issue 1:To create an appointed redistricting commission not elected by or subject to removal by the voters of the state.”
Unless the Ohio Supreme Court disqualifies the ballot language for misrepresenting the proposed amendment, voters will struggle through a summary of over 700 words that starts
“The proposed amendment would:
- Repeal constitutional protections against gerrymandering approved by nearly three-quarters of Ohio electors participating in the statewide elections of 2015 and 2018, and eliminate the longstanding ability of Ohio citizens to hold their representatives accountable for establishing fair state legislative and congressional districts.
- Establish a new taxpayer-funded commission of appointees required to gerrymander the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts to favor the two largest political parties in the state of Ohio, according to a formula based on partisan outcomes as the dominant factor.
The ballot language “describes the amendment’s restrictions on lobbyists and politicians influencing the map-drawing process as limits on citizens’ rights to free expression. And, in a particularly noteworthy change added at the last minute, it describes the amendment, which is specifically intended to prevent partisan gerrymandering, as specifically requiring it,” reported the Associated Press.
The ballot board language also charges that the amendment will “require the commission to immediately create new legislative and congressional districts in 2025 to replace the most recent districts adopted by the citizens of Ohio through their elected representatives,” and “impose new taxpayer-funded costs on the State of Ohio to pay the commission members, the commission staff, and appointed special masters, professionals, and private consultants that the commission is required to hire; and an unlimited amount for legal expenses incurred by the commission in any related litigation.”
This language fails to mention that Ohio taxpayers always pay the expenses of redistricting, and that the 2020-22 redistricting commission cost taxpayers enormous amounts of extra money (including for consultants whose work the commission disregarded) by repeatedly failing to correct the unconstitutional elements pointed out by the Supreme Court, and extending the impasse until a federal panel of judges finally ordered the state to use one of the sets of gerrymandered maps so candidates could know what their district boundaries were and the election could be conducted in 2022 and thereafter.
The ballot summary submitted by Citzens Not Politicians supporters states clearly that the goal is to restore accountability by creating fair, representative districts in a process free from conflict of interest and conducted in public:
“The proposed amendment would:
- Establish the Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission, composed of 15 Ohio citizens, to draw and adopt Ohio General Assembly and Ohio Congressional districts.
- Require that the Commission consist of 15 members who have demonstrated the absence of any disqualifying conflicts of interest and who have shown an ability to conduct the redistricting process with impartiality, integrity, and fairness.
- Set forth that the Commission shall operate in a transparent manner by requiring public hearings that invite broad public participation throughout the state, public displays of redistricting plans, and a public report explaining any plan the Commission adopts.
- Provide that each redistricting plan shall contain single-member districts that are geographically contiguous, comply with federal law, closely correspond to the statewide partisan preferences of Ohio voters, and preserve communities.
- Require that all deliberations and actions of the Commission shall be in public meetings and all actions by the Commission require an affirmative vote of at least 9 of 15 members.”
The fatal flaw in the 2015 and 2018 amendments – which represented a compromise between state legislative leaders and reformers including the League of Women Voters – was to create a redistricting commission made up entirely of elected officials: three top statewide officials and four from the general assembly. The first time this process was used, following the 2020 US Census, the redistricting commission repeatedly drafted maps which created supermajorities for the party that held five of the seven seats on the commission.
This year, citizens of both parties as well as independents spent months collecting over 535,000 valid signatures to put this reform on the ballot, but the ballot board language uses prejudicial language so less-informed voters will believe that the amendment would create gerrymandered districts. The redistricting rules put in place by the 2015 and 2018 amendments already require proportionality: one criterion for fair districts is that the likely composition of the congressional delegation and general assembly fit the voting preferences of Ohioans over the decade preceding the redistricting.
The August 16 decision by the ballot board is the latest of several efforts by Ohio leaders to undermine voter voice through the constitutional amendment process. Last year, as momentum built for the citizen-sponsored reproductive rights amendment, the state legislature passed a proposal to raise the bar for passing citizen-sponsored constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60%, then scheduled a special election in August to get it passed by the likely low turnout. Ohio voters shattered turnout projections and defeated the amendment. The ballot board adopted prejudicial wording for the reproductive rights amendment as well, which the Ohio Supreme Court refused to disqualify. Nevertheless, voters passed the reproductive rights amendment by 56.8%.
The distortions in the ballot board’s description of CItizens Not Politicians seem much more damaging to me and the work to educate voters will be hard.
“It’s one grotesque abuse of power after another from politicians desperate to protect the current system that only benefits themselves and their lobbyist friends,” said retired Ohio chief justice O’Connor, a Republican leader who helped draft Citizens Not Politicians. “Do the politicians not see how angry voters are when they keep breaking the law to protect their own power? Secretary of State Frank LaRose voted seven times for maps that courts ruled were unconstitutional, and this week he violates the constitution with objectively false ballot language. It’s a desperate abuse of power, and it’s not going to work.”
“I just keep thinking about that book ‘1984,’ said Catherine Turcer, Common Cause Ohio executive director and a member of the large bipartisan coalition supporting Issue 1, referring to George Orwell’s novel. “You know, ‘War is peace, freedom is slavery.’ The way that the ballot language plays around with the word ‘gerrymandering’ to make it mean exactly what it doesn’t is both jaw-dropping and it makes you question the integrity of elected officials.”
Cincinnati Festival of Faiths seminar on Citizens Not Politicians Aug 26, 12 p.m.
If you want to know what you can do to pass redistricting reform in Ohio, sign up for this free webinar. You’ll see polling data contrasting the commitment of the majority of Ohioans to voter rights, racial justice, gun safety, and environmental safety with laws passed by our gerrymandered general assembly. Learn how you can help pass the Citizens Not Politicians amendment, which is endorsed by Common Cause Ohio, the League of Women Voters, and scores of other statewide and local civic groups. The speakers are Ariel Miller, advocacy co-chair for Faith Communities Go Green, and Rae Vuic of the League of Women Voters Cincinnati area. Rae is a member of the Fair Districts Ohio speakers’ bureau and Ariel reports weekly on public policy for the Diocese of Southern Ohio. Register here and share the link with your networks.
The Cincinnati Festival of Faiths is an annual weeklong celebration organized by the interfaith coalition EquaSion. The festival begins with an in-person celebration on Sunday, Aug. 25 at Xavier University’s Cintas Center from 12 to 5 p.m., followed by several days of Zoom programming. Lifelong Episcopalian Chip Harrod, a revered leader of interfaith work in Cincinnati, serves as executive director of EquaSion. The Rev. Melanie Slane, ecumenical officer for the Diocese of Southern Ohio, is part of the advisory board for A Mighty Stream, EquaSion’s social justice coalition dedicated to racial justice. The Diocese of Southern Ohio and Christ Church Cathedral are the lead sponsors of this year’s festival. Read about the Festival of Faiths here.
Cincinnati Festival of Faiths Peace Walk at Ault Park, Aug 29, 6 p.m.
This is the concluding event of the Festival of Faiths. Meet at the Great Lawn below the Ault Park pavilion, 5090 Observatory Circle.
Ohio Council of Churches Anti-Racism Sunday Oct 20
The Ohio Council of Churches invites all congregations to join its fourth annual Anti-Racism Sunday by creating your own worship service or joining the OCC’s statewide event via Facebook. This year’s theme is “Dismantling Racism – Building Community.” The Ohio Council of Churches will provide suggestions for an adult sermon, biblical readings, and Sunday school lessons and activities for different age groups. Learn more and sign up here.
