Huffman talks about his concerns over proposed map making ballot imitative

LIMA, OHIO (WLIO) - Ohio’s Senate President has some concerns about a citizen-backed proposed ballot initiative to change the state’s map-making process.

The group, Citizens not Politicians, is trying to get an amendment passed to replace the current Ohio Redistricting Commission with an independent body selected directly by citizens which would draw the legislative maps for the Ohio House, Ohio Senate, and Congressional districts. The group is waiting to see if their ballot initiative makes it onto the November 5^th ballot. But Senate President Matt Huffman, who sat on the redistricting commission, has some concerns about this measure after he says the resent maps had bipartisan support. 

“It throws out all the reforms passed in 2015 and 2018, which means keeping communities of interest together, keeping local jurisdictions, cities, and counties together. That was a big concern with maps in the past,” says State Senator Matt Huffman, Ohio's Senate President. 

Huffman is also concerned that this could lead to the same federal lawsuits that Michigan is currently facing for violating the Civil Rights Act with their district maps. 

“The second thing is that many of the districts are probably going to eliminate many of the African American legislators from inner cities, like Cincinnati and Cleveland. Because they will take those small parts of the district and take those out into counties. This just happened in Michigan, and that’s exactly what happened,” adds Huffman. 

If this issue is approved by voters, Huffman says the people making the maps will be unaccountable to the voters. Citizens not Politicians turned in over 700,000 signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office before the deadline for the November 5^th ballot, and the signatures are being verified to see if there is enough to move on to the next step.