Ohio & Mahoning Valley - Ohio has a less than stellar record when it comes to drawing up district lines for its senate, house and congressional maps - several of which have been deemed unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Folks across the Valley got a chance to hear about a new constitutional amendment proposal that seeks to fix issues that have held back the state from creating fair state senate/house and congressional district maps.

The virtual event featured retired Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor as the keynote speaker to discuss the amendment and how it would overhaul the way Ohio's congressional districts are drawn and redrawn. 

It was hosted by the Greater Youngstown Community Mobilization Coalition, the MLK Planning Committee of Mahoning Valley, Mahoning Valley Association of Churches, Sojourn to the Past and the YWCA of Youngstown.

The constitutional amendment would repeal and replace two amendments that were passed in 2015 and 2018 that were originally intended to remove partisanship from the map making process for Ohio.

However, O'Connor says that the commission it created, which is seated by seven Republicans and two Democrats have struggled to fulfill the promise these amendments made.

This includes producing several maps that were struck down in 2022 and 2023 by the Ohio Supreme Court for being unconstitutional on the grounds they were too partisan.

The current maps produce a State House with a makeup of 61 Republicans and 38 Democrats, and a Senate with 23 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

They would create a House that is 62% GOP and a Senate that is supermajority-Republican in a state where Republicans make up just 2% more of the population than their Democratic counterparts, according to Pew Research Center.

"[This amendment] is important because every aspect of law, rules and regulations passes through the general assembly," O'Connor said. "If the general assembly is looking at everything with political glasses on and the intent is to maintain power for the party, then they wont have the motivation to be fair and impartial and reflect the will of the people in Ohio [when redistricting the state]."

In the place of the repealed amendments, the proposed amendment would create a citizen led mapping commission that would be composed of fifteen citizens. O'Conner says those citizens would be made of five republicans, five democrats and five independents.

The members would be selected through an application and interview process and narrowed down based on qualifications that have not been determined yet.

The commission would hold meetings across the state and get public input on proposed maps. Additionally, every meeting held by this commission will be streamed and recorded to increase transparency of the map-making process.

In order to pay for the group, the amendment requires the legislature to pay the same amount it paid for the current redistricting commission and its efforts to redraw the maps in 2022 and 2023. O'Connor said this was around $7 million.

Additionally, there are built-in safeguards to prevent the commission from creating more unconstitutional maps that favor one party over the other. This includes criterion that need to be followed for a map to be built, how many votes are needed for the map to be approved, how many members of each party need to approve the maps.

Most importantly, the amendment would prevent the Ohio legislature from touching the map once it has been approved by the commission. 

"This constitutional amendment bends over backwards to accommodate the will of people, the voice of the people, the participation of the people," O'Connor said during the presentation.

The process is heavily based on Michigan's citizen led commission to redraw state/house and congressional district maps, which was ruled constitutional in 2018, O'Connor said.

Now, the group Citizens Not Politicians is gathering signatures to get the amendment on November's ballot. They need 413,000 valid signatures across 44 of the state's 88 counties to get the amendment placed on the ballot.

The deadline to accomplish this is July 3.

If approved, the commission would be formed as soon as possible in 2025 and begin redrawing the state's district map for 2026 through 2030.

"Power to the people," O'Connor said. "This is all done for the benefit of the citizens."

If this constitutional amendment is not approved in November, the maps that were approved will be used until 2030 when the next U.S. Census will happen.

For more information about the constitutional amendment, click here.