Is it too late to draw new congressional map?
COLUMBUS – Is it too late to replace Ohio’s congressional map before the 2022 elections?
Even those trying to toss it can’t agree.
The map – as approved by Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission over Democrats’ objections – creates at least 10 Republican-leaning districts out of 15. Democrats and voting rights advocates say the map is gerrymandered to benefit Republicans and it needs to go, but they disagree on when that should happen.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s National Redistricting Action Fund wants the map tossed before the 2022 elections, it argued in a lawsuit filed Monday. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and its client, the League of Women Voters of Ohio, however, said it was too late to draw another map before the 2022 election. Instead, they argued the Ohio Supreme Court should reject the congressional map before the 2024 election.
The ACLU’S approach didn’t go over well with many Democrats. Some called the organization “traitors” and “cowardly.” The A. Philip Randolph Institute withdrew from the lawsuit as Ohio President Andre Washington explained: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Some accused the ACLU of giving in to Republicans’ delay tactics. But those who made the decision contend they were being strategic.
They argue that if the Ohio Supreme Court rejects the congressional map, it could give lawmakers and the Ohio Redistricting Commission up to 60 days, total, to craft a new one. That could create problems for even an August election.
“It’s not that we’re giving up. It’s just simply that when the clock restarted, we had no option,” said Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “It’s regrettable because partisan players’ strategy all along was to run out the clock and they have been successful, at least in part.”
But the National Redistricting Action Fund’s lawsuit argues the court could
give mapmakers less time or even pick a map itself. In that scenario, a new map could be ready for a delayed primary in August, for example.
Ohio Supreme Court justices have shown no interest in moving the primary, denying Democrats’ request to change it on Thursday.
Miller also worries about what could happen if federal courts step in.
“If the federal courts get involved, it’s anyone’s guess what map is used,” Miller said. “We do have to think about the fact that the federal judiciary has taken a hard, anti-voter turn in the last several years.”
Again, Holder’s Democratic group is less concerned with federal court intervention. It points to a 1993 U.S. Supreme Court decision that says federal courts shouldn’t interfere with state courts’ “timely efforts” to redraw maps.
But is it too close to the election to change maps? Republican attorneys have argued that the Ohio Supreme Court shouldn’t change election rules, or districts, too close to the primary. It’s called the “Purcell principle” based on a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t been consistent about what’s too close to the election. It did not weigh in on Alabama’s congressional map in February but struck down Wisconsin’s legislative map on Wednesday.
Four conservative Supreme Court justices also have expressed interest in taking a look at whether state courts should have the power to challenge lawmakers’ decisions about federal elections and redistricting.
It’s called the “independent state legislature” doctrine, but Ohio might not be the best case study for it, those challenging the maps say. Ohio lawmakers wrote the mapmaking rules that voters overwhelmingly approved in separate ballot issues, and legislators comprise a majority of the commission’s seven members.
In the end, the fate of Ohio’s congressional map lies in the hands of Ohio’s seven Supreme Court justices.
Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Akron Beacon Journal, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch and 18 other news organizations.