This fall, Ohioans will vote on whether to remove politicians from the redistricting process and replace them with citizen mapmakers.
Ohio isn’t the first state to try a citizen commission for drawing congressional and state legislative districts. While each state’s approach is a little different, the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau looked at three states’ commissions to examine what worked and what didn’t.
Ohio Issue 1 2024: What is it? Would it stop gerrymandering?
Michigan: Racial gerrymandering, a lawsuit and a fix
In 2018, Michigan voters approved a 13-member independent citizen redistricting commission of four Democrats, four Republicans and five independents. The commission approved congressional and statehouse maps in late 2021 − its first big test.
That test drive included some bumps along the road. Michigan’s Republican chairman called for two independent commission members to resign, saying they were, in fact, Democrats, according to the Detroit Free Press. He pointed to one’s pro-Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders post on social media and another’s small donations to EMILY’s List, a pro-abortion access group. But both remained on the commission.
Later, a trio of federal judges ruled that more than a dozen Detroit-area legislative districts were racial gerrymanders that violated Black residents’ rights. The commission fixed the maps, and the judges signed off on them in March 2024.
“The main thing that went wrong is that the commission, with all its intent of trying to achieve fair outcomes for everybody, ended up drawing two legislative maps that were racial gerrymanders,” said Jon Eguia, an economics professor at Michigan State University who studied Michigan’s redistricting model. “It’s a failure of outcome and it’s a failure of process that leads to that outcome.”
But the commission corrected its failure, which Eguia attributed to an overreliance on one expert, because of a transparent process that made clear exactly where the commission went wrong.
“Citizens make mistakes, too, but at least they’re not set deliberately to give us something biased,” Eguia said. “At least they’re trying to do it right.”
Arizona: A powerful, independent chair
In 2000, Arizona voters created a five-member Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission to draw congressional and statehouse districts to replace the state Legislature drawing maps. The commission includes two Republicans, two Democrats and one independent who leads the group.
The structure puts pressure on the sole independent to be truly independent. Democrats raised concerns about the commission’s most recent chair, who had previously registered as a Republican and donated to the state’s then-GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, said Arizona Sen. Priya Sundareshan, a member of Arizona Senate’s elections committee.
The GOP and Ducey, frustrated with how redistricting went in 2011, packed the group that selects the independent redistricting commission with Republicans, the Arizona Republic reported.
“Arizona’s experience has not been perfect, but it really has benefited our representation in the state,” said Sundareshan during the Democratic National Convention. She pointed to the power of a single chair as one flaw. “There’s absolutely opportunity to remedy and reform this process to try to take out any additional partisan influence.”
New York: Gridlock without independents
In 2014, New York voters approved a constitutional amendment crafted by state lawmakers to create a 10-member redistricting commission. The commission includes five Democrats and five Republicans with no independents.
New York’s measure didn’t remove lawmakers from the process. Legislators select eight of the 10 members. All maps must be approved by the state Legislature, which also had the power to draw its own maps after rejecting two commission proposals, according to a Brennan Center for Justice analysis of what went wrong.
The commission gridlocked, leaving the Democratic-controlled Legislature to draw its own maps, which judges rejected as gerrymandered and replaced with ones drawn by a special master for 2022.
“It was impossible for us to come to an agreement,” said David Imamura, an attorney who chaired the New York State Independent Redistricting Commission. New York eventually approved maps for 2024, but the saga did little to instill confidence in the system. “The process is at best chaotic and at worse undermines faith in democracy with voters.”
Jessie Balmert covers state government and politics for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
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Publish date : 2024-09-14 03:45:00
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