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Yesterday, the Ohio GOP proposed state legislative maps that would secure supermajorities for themselves in the state House and Senate -- with as many as 66% of the districts drawn to favor Republicans even though only 55% of Ohioan voters recently supported Republicans in statewide elections.
These maps are gerrymandered and would enable Republicans to maintain their grip on Ohio's Statehouse for another decade -- further stalling progress on things like access to reproductive health care, action on climate change, protecting our freedom to vote, LGBTQ rights, and common sense gun violence prevention in the state.
We have less than a week before map drawers in Ohio finalize their legislative maps before the September 15 deadline and shift attention to the state’s U.S. Congressional districts. We know Ohio Republicans have used map manipulation to place extremists like Jim Jordan in Congress -- we can’t let them do it again.
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Looking at the proposed legislative maps, many communities -- particularly communities of color -- are packed together and cracked apart throughout the state. We’re hearing from some of the commissioners that map drawers were instructed to ignore demographic and racial data.
These proposed maps are skewed partisan -- even more gerrymandered than the Ohio legislative maps drawn in 2011 -- and the district lines do not reflect our communities.
We also have reason to believe that map drawers did not do analysis to see if these maps violate protections established by the Voting Rights Act. This is a huge red flag!
We’ve warned that map manipulators across the country are willing to distort district lines to protect their power -- even at the expense of voters. It’s happening right now in Ohio. Help us stop map manipulation in Ohio and across the country.
Our team will keep you up to date as things unfold in the coming days with the legislative and congressional maps in Ohio. This is one of the first states where the fight for fair maps is heating up -- but it won’t be the last.
-- Katy Shanahan
AOTL OH State Director
All On The Line is the grassroots advocacy campaign supported by the National Redistricting Action Fund. Support our work to end gerrymandering.
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