2024 Opportunity: Slaying Ohio's Gerrymander
Get On Board the "Citizens Not Politicians Campaign": Here's How!
Yes, there’s a lot at stake in 2024.
Democracy itself is on the ballot (up and down that ballot) in so many ways. Candidates from President to Congress to state legislatures and courthouses to local—running everywhere.
And in Ohio, our goal is to get democracy on the ballot in one other way—beyond candidate elections. And that is through the effort to end gerrymandering by FIRING the politicians from the districting process (they’ve proven themselves incapable of undertaking this crucial role) and replacing them with a balanced, multi-partisan group of responsible citizens.
And if you’ve been watching Ohio’s unconstitutional and extremist legislature lately—overriding the Governor’s veto yesterday, scheming ways to undo the Constitutional Amendment for Reproductive Freedom in November, and so on—boy do we need this reform.
Gerrymandering is the root cause of so much of what’s happening!
And in Ohio, this is the year to end it!
So all year long, among many things we’re going to talk about, I’m going to encourage and guide you on all the ways you can help make sure we…FINALLY…rid ourselves of the poison of gerrymandering in our state.
The Basics
The Reform:
The basic principles of the Ohio reform effort are drawn from successful efforts and best practices in other states—most recently, the reform that passed and has already taken effect in Michigan.
The reform’s key elements:
It creates a 15-member Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission made up of Democratic, Republican, and Independent citizens who broadly represent the different geographic areas and demographics of the state.
It bans current or former politicians, political party officials and lobbyists from sitting on the Commission.
It requires fair and impartial districts by making it unconstitutional to draw voting districts that discriminate against or favor any political party or individual politician.
It requires the commission to operate under an open and independent process.
One question I’m often asked: does this reform prevent what happened last time, where the politicians purposely delayed and then repeatedly violated the Constitutional requirements?
The answer: YES.
Because the politicians are not involved in the process in any way, they will not have the opportunity to scuttle the process. They are not at the table whatsoever, and have no opportunity to invite themselves in . They’re FIRED!
For other commonly asked questions about the reform, go to this helpful page put together by the Ohio League of Women Voters.
The Opportunity:
The good news is that the people of Ohio, after voting to reform gerrymandering twice (by 70-30 margins) only to see the Columbus politicians violate the new Constitutional rules, are eager for this type of reform.
Late last year, I conducted a poll which included a question about the basics of this reform effort. And in a very polarized Ohio, the measure earned decisive and bipartisan support:
Overall, it was supported by Ohioans by a margin of 57-15 — decisively more popular than both the Reproductive Freedom and Marijuana Legalization measures that passed last November.
And that support comes from across the board:
Trump supporters support it by a margin of 41-21; Biden supporters 76-10
Women (58-13) and men (57-17) support it
Republicans (41-22), Independents (56-11) and Democrats (77-10) all support it
All age groups and education levels support it
All regions of Ohio support it
The Campaign:
The campaign to pass this initiative is called Citizens Not Politicians. What a perfect name!
To learn more directly about the campaign, here is the campaign’s website. There, you can read the amendment, personally endorse it it, and sign up to receive information about ways you can volunteer to make it happen.
You can also follow the campaign on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/citizensnotpoliticians?link_id=2&can_id=79b3bde1402dd05bdeb69e0193643092&source=email-gerrymandering-in-ohio-is-a-problem&email_referrer=email_2109246&email_subject=gerrymandering-in-ohio-is-a-problem
Your Help Now: Gathering Signatures…
The good news is that the campaign has already accomplished the pre-work needed to get this on the ballot and passed, including getting the petition language approved.
So right now, we are in the signature collection phase of the campaign, with volunteers circulating petitions put this amendment on the ballot. The effort will need more than 700,000 signatures in order to surpass the 400,000+ valid signatures required to make the ballot.
In addition to the campaign and other groups, the League of Women Voters is playing a leading role in the signature gathering efforts—taking on a large bulk of the total signatures needed.
You can help the League accomplish this in two ways.
Sign-up to help gather petitions —including the training that allows you to do so. If you go to this website, you’ll see the button that lets you get started with training.
Support the League of Women Voters’ effort: to help the League shoulder their petition-gathering efforts (largely funding the back-office infrastructure needed to succeed), I want to encourage folks to contribute to the League directly. I will also be doing a fundraiser for the League in the near future to do the same. For now, you can contribute to the League’s petition-gathering effort at this LINK. Every dollar helps them organize and pull off this huge task.
More to Come…
So that’s my opening guidance on the effort, and how you can help.
I will provide more details along the way.
But for now, the top way you can help is by 1) gathering signatures and 2) support the League’s effort to gather signatures:
As a League member I've already turned in a couple packets of signatures, and going for more. Let's keep it going, Ohio!
Let's go! I'm already on board with this fair districting effort. I will use the cartoon in your substack on my FB page and share to some relevant pages!