CLEVELAND, Ohio – Opponents of a state constitutional amendment that would overhaul how Ohio draws its legislative districts warn that it would harm minority representation in the statehouse and Congress, a claim backers characterized as a desperate attempt to mislead voters.
Speakers for the Black Equity and Redistricting Fund, a political nonprofit that doesn’t have to disclose its donors, predict that state Issue 1’s rules for how districts are drawn – considering factors such as compactness, communities of interest and partisan fairness – will dilute the voice of minority populations found in Ohio’s urban cores.
They say that was the impact in Michigan, which approved an anti-gerrymandering issue in 2018.
The dilution of minority representation was a consequence of rules intended to thwart gerrymandering, but which instead worked against minority voices.
It was compounded when members of the Citizens Redistricting Commission, members who didn’t understand the complexities of redistricting, relied on consultants and ignored public input, said Rebecca Szetela, an independent member of the commission and the body’s former chair.
The result was minority districts rooted in Detroit in Wayne County –minority dominated areas with high poverty — were fractured and extended into adjacent counties with higher incomes and fewer people of color, former Democratic Michigan Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo said during a Tuesday campaign event in Warrensville Heights.
That led to fewer people of color elected to the statehouse, and to Congress.
Ohio Senate Democrats pushed back on the argument, accusing the group of trying to mislead voters.
“It’s unfortunate that the critics of Issue 1 think that Ohioans are not smart enough to understand what they are voting on,” Sen. Nickie J. Antonio said in a statement. “This seems to be yet another attempt by Republicans at the eleventh hour to mislead voters about the crucial need for redistricting reform.
“As evidenced by the Ohio Conference NAACP, the Ohio Unity Coalition, the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, and other civil rights groups urging a ‘yes’ vote, Issue 1 will finally put an end to Ohio’s extensive track record of partisan gerrymandering that undermines voter representation, especially in marginalized communities,” Antonio said.
The Black Equity and Redistricting Fund, a registered non-profit social welfare organization, was co-founded by Gay-Dagnogo and former Ohio State Rep. John Barnes, a Cleveland Democrat.
The legislative district that Gay-Dagnogo represented was Detroit focused and contained a population with high amounts of poverty. It was redrawn so that it now reaches into adjacent Oakland County and includes Birmingham, one of the wealthiest communities in the state.
Bolstering suburban population in legislative districts, where residents have more money to contribute to campaigns and thus a stronger voice, leaves impoverished areas unrepresented, Gay-Dagnogo said.
Ohio’s Issue 1 would require its citizens commission consider proportionality, a concept that congressional and legislative districts must be drawn to favor Democrats or Republicans so that the overall maps are balanced based on the average percentage of the vote each party’s statewide candidates received in recent elections.
The current system has produced historic supermajorities for Republicans in the Ohio Statehouse and a massive advantage in the state’s congressional delegation, even though Republicans won about 56% of the vote between 2014 and 2022.
Proportionality is meant to counter that. But it will cause city-focused districts to be splintered to balance suburban and rural areas, Szetela predicts.
“Proportionality will require fracturing of the cities, Szetela said.
That kind of dilution in Ohio would weaken the voice of poorer minority voters, a group that already has low turnout, Barnes said.
“That’s not going to build businesses, that’s not going to build wealth, that won’t sustain communities. That won’t build opportunity,” Barnes said.
He said he favors efforts to bolster turnout — the idea of “one man, one vote” — instead of tinkering with the system and tamping down participation. The focus should be getting people to the polls and winning races.
