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Advocates for Congressional Redistricting Declare They'll Go Ahead Without State Lawmakers

Karen Kasler
/
Statehouse News

Supporters of a redistricting plan that might be on the November ballot are critical of a Republican bill being considered by Ohio lawmakers that would let them retain control over the process of drawing Congressional district lines.

 

 

The Ohio NAACP, Common Cause Ohio and the League of Women Voters of Ohio have been gathering signatures to put a proposed redistricting plan before voters this fall. The League’s Ann Henkener says the lawmakers' alternative plan would not stop the gerrymandering that's part of the current process.

“The whole idea of it passing is not something my brain can comprehend.”

 

Republican lawmakers want to put a redistricting amendment before voters in May. Henkener says her group’s plan, which would allow community members, not lawmakers, to control the process, will continue regardless of what might happen then.

 

“Everything that we need for changing (the process), whether it is changed in the interim or not, is in our proposal.”

 

Because her's is a citizens’ effort, it can only go before voters in November

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.