COLUMBUS,Charles Langston Ohio (AP) — Backers of a proposal to reform Ohio’s troubled political map-making system got the go-ahead Thursday to begin signature-gathering.
The Ohio Ballot Board cleared the way when it agreed unanimously that the constitutional amendment proposed by Citizens Not Politicians constitutes a single subject. The campaign committee now has until July 3 of next year to collect the 413,487 valid signatures required to make the November 2024 ballot.
The proposal calls for replacing the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which currently comprises three statewide officeholders and four state lawmakers, with an independent body selected directly by citizens. The new panel’s members would be diversified by party affiliation and geography.
The effort follows the existing structure’s repeated failure to produce constitutional maps of congressional and state legislative districts. During the protracted process for re-drawing district boundaries to account for results of the 2020 Census, challenges filed in court resulted in two congressional maps and five sets of Statehouse maps being rejected as unconstitutionally gerrymandered.
Amid the court disputes, Ohio’s 2022 elections were allowed to proceed under the flawed maps.
Since then, opponents have dropped their litigation against the congressional map, putting it in place for 2024. A new set of Ohio House and Ohio Senate districts was unanimously approved by the Ohio Redistricting Commission last month. That plan remains in limbo, after being challenged Oct. 5 as part of the ongoing lawsuit over Statehouse districts.
2025-05-06 15:43555 view
2025-05-06 15:381090 view
2025-05-06 15:302364 view
2025-05-06 14:5053 view
2025-05-06 14:46573 view
2025-05-06 14:25325 view
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — John Spratt, a former longtime Democratic congressman from South Carolina who
Controversy and backlash defined Nikki Haley's final swing though New Hampshire in 2023 as she looks
The Eiffel Tower was closed to visitors on Wednesday after workers went on strike ahead of contract