Ohio Governor Mike DeWine held a press conference Wednesday morning where he called for an end to gerrymandering.

During the press conference Governor DeWine brought up an issue that will appear on the November ballot with the goal of amending Ohio's constitution to end gerrymandering in Ohio.

Despite the issue's goal, DeWine voiced his criticisms of the issue suggesting Ohioans not vote for it saying it won't actually stop gerrymandering and called the issue "misguided."

"If this ballot proposal were to be adopted. Ohio would actually end up with a system that mandates, that compels map drawers to produce gerrymandered districts. In fact, Ohio would have gerrymandering in the extreme," DeWine said.

DeWine went on to say if this issue passes, once voters see the results they will be demanding change once again.

One of the biggest issues DeWine took with the ballot proposal was the idea of proportionality stating that the ballot proposal makes proportionality "king" and supersede all else.

DeWine says proportionality would supersede the importance of respecting county, city, village and township lines, as well as the importance of keeping communities of interest together, the equal functional ability of politically cohesive and geographically proximate racial, ethnic and language minorities to participate in the political process and elect candidates of choice and even the requirement for districts to be reasonably equal in total population.

DeWine defined proportionality as looking at past statewide partisan elections, figuring out which percentage each party got on average and drawing each district so it favors one party or the other.

"The idea of proportionality sounds good. However, we've seen how requiring a map drawer to draw districts, each of which favors one political party with each district having a pre-determined partisan advantage and requiring a number of districts to favor each party obliterates all other good government objectives. They all go away," DeWine said. 

"Proportionality is the ultimate in gerrymandering by manipulating each district so each district favors one party or the other. Every voter will be in a partisan district drawn for the specific reason of favoring one party," DeWine continued.

As an alternative, DeWine suggested a method called the "Iowa Plan" in order to end gerrymandering, which is in line with Iowa's redistricting policies.

DeWine says under the Iowa Plan, map drawers would be prohibited from looking at past voting patterns. Districts will also be required to be "reasonably compact" and cannot be drawn to favor a political party, incumbent legislator or member of Congress.

Additionally, map makers would not be allowed to use the address of incumbent legislators or members of Congress, the political affiliation of registered voters, previous election results and demographic information other than population headcounts.

"The Iowa plan is simple, it is clear and it takes politics out of the map drawing process forever," DeWine said.

DeWine says if the ballot proposal is not passed, he will work with the General Assembly to introduce the "Iowa Plan" in the hopes of placing it on the ballot for voters.

In a press release, the Ohio Democratic Party accused DeWine of "flip-flopping" on the issue of redistricting reform and gerrymandering when he had previously been quoted as saying he would be happy not to be involved in redistricting.

"Either Governor DeWine suddenly believes politicians actually should be drawing maps for Ohioans despite countless examples of him professing the opposite position, or he knows that future administrations will have a harder time passing the extremist agenda we see coming out of Columbus with a balanced legislature," said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters.

Meanwhile, the Ohio Republican Party issued its own statement agreeing with DeWine's position on the ballot initiative saying it is designed to mislead voters.

"This bait-and-switch scheme will select people that are not accountable to voters to draw maps with a specific outcome in mind. It is a horrible amendment that will disenfranchise African-American voters, just like the failed Michigan commission that is the Ohio amendment’s model," said Ohio Republican Party Chair Alex Triantafilou.