The Big Fat Lie of Issue 1 is Right in the Text

The far left is trying to bamboozle you into voting for a big fat lie.

The radical front group Citizens Not Politicians is trying to sell Issue 1 on the November ballot as a way to stop gerrymandering in Ohio.

It would do the exact opposite – it would ensure gerrymandering.

And that’s on purpose.

Why?

To help Democrats do what they can’t do at the polls in Ohio: win elections.

They were banking on the fact that few voters would be willing to endure the torture of reading the mind-bending 13,343 words of tedious and esoteric legal jargon in the 26 pages of the proposed amendment.

But they left a telltale clue at the very heart of their deception.

You really only have to read one key paragraph – the one that describes how to “ban partisan gerrymandering” – to see their doublespeak clearly.

The text claims it will ban plans that favor one party...while making sure any plan favors both parties.

Huh?

How does that work?

It doesn’t.

The devil of Issue 1 is in the details.

Let’s breakdown the wording like a coach with a telestrator.

The Big Lie stems from a jaw-dropping logical contradiction in the actual text of the amendment:

Section 6. Rules for drawing districts
(B) To ban partisan gerrymandering and prohibit the use of redistricting plans that favor one political party and disfavor others, the statewide proportion of districts in each redistricting plan that favors each political party shall correspond closely to the statewide partisan preferences of the voters of Ohio.

Here is the contradiction – the first part of that sentence cannot be done if you also do the second part of that sentence.  They are the complete opposites of each other.

This:

To ban partisan gerrymandering and prohibit the use of redistricting plans that favor one political party and disfavor others

Is the opposite of this: 

the statewide proportion of districts in each redistricting plan that favors each political party shall correspond closely to the statewide partisan preferences of the voters of Ohio.

The first part of that sentence seeks to ban partisan favoritism – the second part seeks to ensure it.

The first part of the sentence seeks to “prohibit the use of redistricting plans that favor one political party” but the second part seeks to ensure a “plan that favors each political party.”

That’s gibberish.  A plan can’t eliminate the favoring of one party by making sure each part of the plan favors one party over another.

In fact, this plan ensures one party is favored over another by using proportionality (past voting histories, or “statewide partisan preferences”) as the primary criteria for drawing district maps.

The outcome is decided before a single district map is drawn.

Democrats get X number of districts and Republicans get Y.

The actual maps – the district boundaries – are an afterthought. They don’t matter. As long as the predetermined result is achieved. That’s the opposite of democracy.  And that is the expressed goal of Issue 1.

That is textbook gerrymandering: drawing a district map based on which party it will favor – ensuring it will favor one party over the other.

That is what Issue 1 demands, above all other considerations – yet that is exactly what its backers say it is designed to prevent.

That is one big fat lie.

Democrats and their front group made the key wording of Issue 1 complex and confusing on purpose, and for a very good reason.

They want to hide what it really does.

They can’t win elections so they’re trying to change the rules.

Issue 1 is designed to help Democrats win seats they can’t win at the ballot box by merely redrawing the maps to guarantee they are favored to win a certain number of seats.

How?  By making sure the districts are gerrymandered to favor a certain number of Democrats.

But that cheating is so blatant they have to hide it.

So they bury it in convoluted and confusing wording.

But once you break it down it all adds up to one thing:  Issue 1 is a scam that seeks to guarantee an outcome no matter what voters may decide.

How Democratic.

Bottom line – Issue 1 would make gerrymandering mandatory.

How do Democrats sell a pro-gerrymandering bill to the public?

By calling it an anti-gerrymandering bill.

By calling it the opposite of what it is.

You know, like the Inflation Reduction Act.

Or Build Back Better.

Or Citizens Not Politicians.

Big fat lies.

Garth Kant is Senior Press Secretary of the Ohio Senate Majority Caucus