Election news from Ohio

[babsbunny]

During this election cycle, the talk among political insiders is about who will control the Ohio Apportionment Board, Democrats or Republicans.
The board is controlled by the party that wins the general election this year for a majority of the statewide offices of Governor, Secretary of State and Auditor. Under the current constitutional scheme, a majority of the board can control the drawing of legislative districts for the special interests of a single political party and for pure power by "gerrymandering" state legislative districts.

The party in power in the legislature can affect Congressional districts in the same way. With Ohio's population decreasing, we are likely to lose two Congressional districts, which creates additional partisan wrangling to decide which districts are eliminated.

Ohio's current process allows for elected officials to choose their voters, rather than for voters to effectively choose their representatives. Please sign the petition for fair legislative districts.

For far too long, both Democrats and Republicans, as the state's two major political parties, have fought over control of the board to gain partisan advantage. Many knew that there had to be a better way. That's why, back in June 2009, working with the League of Women Voters and others, my office announced the winners of the Ohio Redistricting Competition. The results proved that Ohio can rely on an open process based on objective criteria to produce fair legislative districts.

The challenge for the competition was to create a map that produced districts that were compact, included communities with shared interests, offered competitive elections, and ensured representational fairness so that no one party or the other had too great an advantage. Fourteen plans were submitted, with three of them meeting all of the criteria. What this competition showed was that, despite the years of partisan gamesmanship, there is a way for us to create legislative districts that serve the public interest.

This year, the candidates for what will be Apportionment Board offices must pledge to end the current system of drawing legislative districts to maximize partisan advantage. It is wrong and it's time to change it. Please sign the petition for fair legislative districts.

Thanks,

Jennifer Brunner

Jennifer Brunner
Ohio Secretary of State

P.S. Please sign the petition for fair legislative districts. We will be delivering the petitions to the major-party candidates for Governor (Ted Strickland (D) and John Kasich (R)), Secretary of State (Maryellen O'Shaughnessy (D) and John Husted (R)), and State Auditor (David Pepper (D) and Dave Yost (R)).

[liberal N proud]

1. More gerrymandering if a certain group gets control