State lawmakers will miss their first deadline for Congressional redistricting, meaning the Ohio Redistricting Commission must reconvene, facing an Oct. 31 deadline.
For the second time this year, the state’s Joint Redistricting Committee met Tuesday morning for almost three hours of testimony by legislators and citizens. Most of it centered on a map drawn by Democrats with virtually no chance of going to a floor vote, signaling the legislature is far away from any consensus on district boundaries.
“We asked time and time again, where are your maps, show us your maps,” Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) told reporters.
Republicans, who hold supermajorities in the Ohio House and Senate, have yet to bring forward their own map.
“There’s not a map that I know of,” Rep. Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) told reporters. “We’re conducting hearings, as we’re required to do, and that’s where we’re at right now.”
The Ohio Constitution requires a 60% majority of the General Assembly to pass a plan by the end of the month, which lawmakers will not make. Now, absent one, the Ohio Redistricting Commission takes over. The seven-member commission skews right, but passage of a plan needs both Democrats on board by Oct. 31.
If that fails, legislators alone take over again, and face a final deadline of Nov. 30. That only needs a straight-line vote of 50% of the General Assembly but includes stricter requirements of districts.
“We are following the process, as you know. We will go through the process, and we’ll follow it through to the end of November,” chair Sen. Jane Timken (R-Jackson Township) told reporters.
Democratic lawmakers unveiled a map in early September. That map, according to analysis of historical voter data from 2016 through 2024, has eight districts that lean red and seven districts that lean blue in an evenly-matched year.
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