(COLUMBUS, OHIO 3/3/2022) Last week, the Ohio Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio) and other petitioners from Ohio Organizing Collaborative v. Ohio Redistricting Commission filed a motion to intervene as plaintiffs in Gonidakis et al v. Ohio Redistricting Commission and Frank Larose, a lawsuit filed in federal court. Mike Gonidakis, the president of Ohio Right to Life, and the other plaintiffs in the federal case seek to compel the Ohio Secretary of State to accept a recent version of legislative maps drawn by the Ohio Redistricting Commission.
These maps were already struck down by the Supreme Court of Ohio because they did not meet the constitution’s requirement of representational proportionality and violated the prohibition of partisan gerrymandering. The Ohio Redistricting Commission missed the Court’s Feb. 18 deadline to produce state Senate and House maps that meet constitutional requirements and stated that they had reached an “impasse”. The Court hearing to determine if they will hold individual members of the commission in contempt for missing this deadline has been postponed.
On Wednesday, the ORC adopted a congressional map that also does not comply with the anti-gerrymandering provisions in the Ohio Constitution or redistricting best practices. The map does not have compact or contiguous districts and fails to keep communities of interest together, diluting the power of people’s votes. The congressional map was passed without bipartisan support; therefore, it will be used for four years, rather than 10. CAIR-Ohio continues the fight for fair maps to ensure that the voices of the people are heard.
