Democrats claim Republicans drew latest Ohio legislative district maps ‘in secret’

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The two Democrats who sit on Ohio’s Redistricting Commission claim the Republicans, who dominate the commission, drew up the latest state legislative maps in secret.
According to a statement issued early Tuesday by Redistricting Commission Co-Chair Sen. Vernon Sykes (D-Akron) and House Minority Leader and Commission member Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington), Republican members of the Commission forced a vote on the latest maps before the Commission could review the final draft maps drawn by the independent map makers.
Sykes and Russo claim the maps fail to comply with the Constitution and Court requirement that maps must reflect the statewide preferences of Ohio voters who voted 54% Republican and 46% Democratic over the last 10 years.
“The majority commissioners purposely wasted another opportunity to adopt constitutional, proportional maps,” Sykes said. “This ridiculous diversion is insulting to voters and comes at a considerable expense to Ohio taxpayers. We made a historic move toward transparency, but Republicans chose to hijack the process. There seems to be no end to the arrogance of the supermajority.”
Republican commissioners rejected a motion by Democrats to adopt the final draft maps drawn by the independent map makers, according to the Democrats.
In its March 16 ruling, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the Commission to draw a new set of state legislative maps.
Democrats claim the majority of their Republican counterparts on the commission abandoned an independent map-drawing process, making only minor changes to maps that were ruled invalid late last month.
According to Russo and Sykes, the plan adopted by the commission majority contains 17 Democratic-toss up districts in the House with between 50-52% partisan share and no Republican districts within the same range.
Alleging that the Senate map is also lopsided, Democrats say those maps have six Democratic Senate districts falling between 50-52%, with no Republican districts in the same range.