On Monday night, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered minor changes to ballot language for Issue 1, the redistricting amendment.
The group behind the measure, Citizens Not Politicians, had sued over the ballot language, calling it misleading and biased. But Republicans on the Supreme Court were largely okay with the wording, ordering only a few changes.
If passed, the ballot initiative would replace the current politician-dominated redistricting process with a 15-member commission made up of civilians – five Republicans, five Democrats, and five voters not affiliated with any party.
Howard Wilkinson, senior political analyst at member station WVXU, joined the Ohio Newsroom to discuss the measure.
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This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
On how the measure differs from those past
“What sets this one apart is the fact that it takes elected officials, regardless of party, totally out of the process. The people who would become members of this commission – the five Democrats, five Republicans, five independent – couldn't be elected officials, couldn't be former elected officials, couldn't be party leaders, couldn't be political consultants, couldn't be lobbyists, and they would be chosen by a panel of retired judges from both parties. So it's basically a plan which takes the process out of the hands of elected officials, which is the case now, and puts it in the hands of the citizen led commission.”
On the measure’s chances
“It's probably a pretty popular idea, this idea of taking this process out of the hands of politicians and putting it in the hands of regular citizens, basically, who just happen to have political beliefs one way or the other. It's probably a pretty popular idea just given the fact that Republicans have used this over the last cycle to put a thumb on the scale. And I think people are tired of it and say, ‘Okay, if we can get the partisan politics out of this process, then we might have a fair system of drawing legislative district lines for the state legislature and for congressional districts that will not be favorable to one party or the other.’”
On the arguments against the measure
“The Ohio Republican Party and all the Republican state officeholders and many county party organizations are very fiercely speaking out against this, particularly on social media, saying that it's going to take gerrymandering and put it into the Ohio constitution forever. Citizens, Not Politicians [the group behind the measure] claims their argument is just totally untrue. There's going to be a whole lot of money spent on this thing; I would think millions of dollars on both sides.”
On the down-ballot effect
“There is going to be an increase in Democrat turnout in Ohio this year because of Kamala Harris. So you have this influx of new voters and you have a lot of Republican voters who are going to vote for this issue, so I think it has a pretty good chance of being passed.”
