The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered the Ohio Redistricting Commission to explain why they can't draw the district maps as ordered or possibly be held in contempt of court. The court has given the commission until noon on Wednesday to file their explanation on why the state senate and state house district maps cannot reflect statewide voting preference of 54% of districts be Republican leaning and 46% Democrat. The Ohio Supreme Court has struck down two previous maps for being too Republican-leaning. Last Thursday, the Republican members of the commission said it was impossible to comply with the Ohio Supreme Court's redistricting demands without breaking other rules of redistricting in the state constitution. With the primary election just a couple of months away, local state representatives want to see something done.
“We have to move forward with elections, people want to know who their representatives are,” says Jon Cross (R) State Representative for the 83rd District. “My suggestion we take the map that we have, and we move forward with it or keep the current districts in place and we will keep working on this for the next election cycle. But we should have the primary election on May 3rd, we will have the general election. Sadly, I believe the supreme court, the four justices, are political activists who are trying to cause chaos in the middle of an election cycle.”
On Friday, a group of Republican voters have gone above the Ohio Supreme Court and filed a lawsuit in Federal Court to force the state to enact the second set of maps the commission submitted.
