Source: The Columbus Dispatch
For the fourth time, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected state House and Senate maps drawn by Republicans, sending mapmakers back to the drawing board.
Time is of the essence because Ohio needs legislative maps by Wednesday, April 20, to conduct an Tuesday, August 2, primary – the latest possible date, according to state election officials.
But in its 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court rejected that premise, saying the primary could be held later than Tuesday, August 2, and the map could be finished by 9 a.m. on Friday, May 6, the court’s new deadline.
“The so-called Wednesday, April 20, ‘deadline’ for implementing a General Assembly-district plan appears to be an artificial deadline that is based on a speculative, potential primary-election date for state legislative races,” according to the majority’s opinion, which did not list an author.
If the Ohio Redistricting Commission can’t come up with a solution, the task could fall to a trio of federal judges.
The Ohio Supreme Court also rejected a request to hold members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission in contempt of court. Democratic and voting rights groups suing over the maps had asked the court to penalize the commission, or some of its members, for not approving a constitutional map.
What did the court order?
The court’s majority suggested that the Ohio Redistricting Commission start from maps crafted by two hired mapmakers – Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political science professor, and Douglas Johnson, president of the National Demographics Corp.
“By certain measures, their plan – though incomplete – is on track to being constitutionally compliant,” according to the majority’s opinion.
The hired mapmakers’ plan had fewer tossup districts on both sides of the political aisle than ones approved by Republicans on the Commission. The court’s majority has placed a premium on maps that precisely match Ohioans’ voting preferences – about 54% for Republican candidates and 46% for Democratic ones – and too many tossup districts for one political party.
Three Republican justices disagreed with the court’s decision, saying the Court – not GOP members on the Commission – had thrown Ohio’s elections into chaos.
“We are stuck in a time loop, like the characters in the movie ‘Groundhog Day,'” wrote Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican running for chief justice. “The movie, of course, was comedic entertainment, but the outcome of these cases is anything but that for the people of this state.”
The now-rejected maps were the result of GOP mapmakers tweaking plans previously rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court. The fourth version reduced the number of highly competitive seats for Democrats, but there were still no similarly competitive seats for Republican candidates.
Four Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission approved these maps on March 28. GOP Auditor Keith Faber and two Democrats on the commission voted against them, albeit for different reasons. Without Democratic support, the maps would have lasted four years.
“Although the commission appeared to be engaging in a more collaborative process in drafting a legislative map, the final day leading up to the adoption of the third revised plan revealed anything but that,” the majority wrote.
The court’s majority pointed out that Senate President Matt Huffman’s focus on protecting incumbent lawmakers slowed down mapmaking.
Justice Patrick Fischer, a Republican, said the majority opinion fails to follow the Ohio Constitution and eliminates the incentive for the Democrats to compromise.
If the four-justice majority had not ignored the constitutional text, Ohio would have had a district plan months ago and wouldn’t be facing problems setting election dates, a constitutional crisis, or the threat of a federal court takeover, he said.
“The majority opinions in these cases continue to harm this court, the Ohio Constitution, and all citizens of this great state. These opinions have placed this state on an unconstitutional path,” Justice Fischer wrote. He added that it may require federal court action to fix it.
Justice Patrick DeWine, a Republican, used a harsher tone, saying the “rogue majority is simply exercising raw political power.”
He said the majority is just making up map requirements not found in the state constitution. Efforts to meet these symmetry requirements led to maps that divided up cities like slices of pizza, he said.
“If it is really true that history repeats itself, first as tragedy then as farce, we are now comfortably in the farce stage,” Justice DeWine concluded. “The fourth enacted plan complies with all constitutional standards.”
Ohioans might not have seen the last of these rejected legislative maps. Three federal judges are tasked with setting a primary date and picking maps if Ohio’s leaders cannot do so before Wednesday, April 20.
The trio of judges might have to pick between various options, including using maps rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court, keeping maps used over the past decade or selecting new maps, such as ones crafted by the two hired mapmakers.
Not so fast, the Ohio Supreme Court’s majority wrote Thursday. “Any suggestion that the federal court could – much less that it should – set a Tuesday, August 2, primary election date as a remedy in the federal-court litigation strikes us as a dubious proposition at best.”
Early voting for the Tuesday, May 3, primary is already underway without state House and Senate candidates on the ballots. Ohioans will vote for statewide candidates such as U.S. Senate and governor, congressional contenders, and local races. Statehouse races will be held later.