Ohio Redistricting Reform Proposal
ByThe Ohio Senate is expected to vote today on a proposed constitutional amendment that would overhaul Ohio’s partisan process for determining how to draw legislative and congressional districts.
The resolution, which passed committee yesterday on a party-line vote, would create a new seven-member board and require a five-vote supermajority to pass new state and federal maps.
New language in proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution reads in part….
Article XI
(A) The Ohio redistricting commission shall consist of seven members and shall be responsible for the redistricting of this state for congress and the general assembly. Beginning with the year 2011, after the first day of February but before the first day of March of each year ending in the numeral one, four members shall be appointed to the commission in the following manner:
(1) The legislative leader of each of the two largest political parties in the Ohio house of representatives shall each appoint one member.
(2) The legislative leader of each of the two largest political parties in the Ohio senate shall each appoint one member.
(B)
(1) All meetings of the Ohio redistricting commission shall be open to the public. The governor shall give the four commission members appointed by the leaders in the general assembly, and the public, at least two weeks advance notice of the date, time, and place of the first meeting of the commission, which shall be held after the first day of March but before the sixteenth day of March of the year ending in the numeral one. At that first meeting, the four members appointed under division (A) of this section shall convene, select co-chairpersons, and adopt procedural rules for the operation of the commission. Those four members shall then proceed with a process of appointing, by unanimous vote of the four members, the remaining three members of the commission. If additional meetings are required for the process of selecting the remaining three members of the commission, the meetings shall be called by the commission co-chairpersons with at least two days prior notice.
In selecting the three additional appointments under this division, the four commission members appointed by the leaders in the general assembly shall give due consideration to the diversity of the state.
(2) If the four commission members appointed by the leaders in the general assembly are unable to unanimously appoint the required three additional members under division (B)(1) of this section by the fifteenth day of April of the year ending in the numeral one, the positions of the three additional members shall be filled as follows not later than the twentieth day of April:
(a) Each member of the commission appointed by the leaders in the general assembly shall submit the name of one proposed commission member to the governor. No two members of the commission shall submit the name of the same proposed commission member to the governor under this division.
(b) The governor shall, in the public view, randomly select the additional three members of the commission from the four proposed members submitted under division (B)(2)(a) of this section.