Sen. Sykes, Senate Democrats Present Amended Congressional Map Proposal
November 10, 2021
Vernon Sykes News
Today, Ohio Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko (D-Richmond Heights) and state Senator Vernon Sykes (D-Akron) presented an amended congressional district map proposal featuring equal-population districts during a meeting of the Ohio Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting.
“The map we are presenting today was designed to respond to the majority’s concerns about equal population, emphasizing our commitment to negotiating in good faith,” Sykes said. “Our proposal today demonstrates that fairness is not in conflict with the principle of equal population. We can draw a Congressional map that achieves equal population while being fair and representative of Ohio’s communities.”
The Senate Democrats’ new proposal – which the caucus hopes will be formally adopted as a Substitute Bill for Senate Bill 237 at the next hearing of the Senate Local Government and Elections committee – makes a number of changes to the original map (S. B. 237) in order to achieve equal populations in each district. All districts in the new map include 786,630 people, except two, which include 786,629 people. The map is still fully compliant with Article 19 of the Ohio Constitution. It does not illegally split contiguous municipalities or townships in any district in the state, and counties are only split to account for population requirements. Under the proposal:
• Seventy-four counties are not split
• Fourteen counties are split once
• No counties were split twice
• All districts are contiguous
• All districts include at least one whole county
• No townships were split
“The map we presented today reflects our commitment to continue conversations with the majority and work together with the goal of adopting a fair, bipartisan 10-year map,” Yuko said. “Ohioans spoke loud and clear in 2018: they want fair maps that don’t unduly favor or disfavor any political party. We believe our map does exactly that.”
The new proposal also complies with all other applicable provisions of the constitutions of Ohio and the U.S., as well as to federal law, including federal laws protecting the voting rights of racial minorities. Each district is compact and composed of contiguous territory. In addition, the boundary of each district is a single, nonintersecting and continuous line.
The map is available on the Redistricting Commission website. To see it on Dave’s Redistricting, click here.
“The map we are presenting today was designed to respond to the majority’s concerns about equal population, emphasizing our commitment to negotiating in good faith,” Sykes said. “Our proposal today demonstrates that fairness is not in conflict with the principle of equal population. We can draw a Congressional map that achieves equal population while being fair and representative of Ohio’s communities.”
The Senate Democrats’ new proposal – which the caucus hopes will be formally adopted as a Substitute Bill for Senate Bill 237 at the next hearing of the Senate Local Government and Elections committee – makes a number of changes to the original map (S. B. 237) in order to achieve equal populations in each district. All districts in the new map include 786,630 people, except two, which include 786,629 people. The map is still fully compliant with Article 19 of the Ohio Constitution. It does not illegally split contiguous municipalities or townships in any district in the state, and counties are only split to account for population requirements. Under the proposal:
• Seventy-four counties are not split
• Fourteen counties are split once
• No counties were split twice
• All districts are contiguous
• All districts include at least one whole county
• No townships were split
“The map we presented today reflects our commitment to continue conversations with the majority and work together with the goal of adopting a fair, bipartisan 10-year map,” Yuko said. “Ohioans spoke loud and clear in 2018: they want fair maps that don’t unduly favor or disfavor any political party. We believe our map does exactly that.”
The new proposal also complies with all other applicable provisions of the constitutions of Ohio and the U.S., as well as to federal law, including federal laws protecting the voting rights of racial minorities. Each district is compact and composed of contiguous territory. In addition, the boundary of each district is a single, nonintersecting and continuous line.
The map is available on the Redistricting Commission website. To see it on Dave’s Redistricting, click here.