The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
The portal for Ohioans to submit proposals in the newest round of congressional redistricting is available, according to legislative leaders.
Plans can be submitted now on the portal, which can be found here.
All proposals posted to the web page will be open for public review, according to a press release from Ohio’s Republican legislative leaders, House Speaker Matt Huffman and Senate President Rob McColley.
Plans can also be mailed to the General Assembly, according to the submission page:
Care of the Clerk of the Senate
Ohio Statehouse
Columbus, OH, 43215
“A proposed congressional district plan submission must include (1) a complete statewide plan and (2) visual representations of the proposed boundaries of the congressional districts,” the submission page states. “Any submission that fails to include both requirements will not be published on the website or considered.”
Congressional redistricting plans will be introduced in the legislature, where they will be assigned a bill number like any other piece of legislation, and then will be subject to hearings before a committee in both chambers. After committee approval, both chambers will vote on the measure.
In order for the map to last 10 years, it has to receive 66% approval in each chamber, including approval from at least half the Democrats and half the Republicans in the Senate and House, according to the Ohio Constitution.
If agreement can’t be reached in the legislature by Sept. 30, the process moves to the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which would have until the end of October to come up with a bipartisan plan.
Without agreement there, the process heads back to the legislature, where a plan can be passed with a simple majority. The constitution gives a deadline of Nov. 30 for the legislature’s second attempt.
With a simple majority adoption, however, the constitution dictates that the plan would only be valid for four years.
The redistricting process is back in Ohio after previous attempts at congressional map-drawing didn’t produce bipartisan maps. Both congressional maps that were adopted in Ohio were struck down as unconstitutionally partisan by the Ohio Supreme Court.
Despite being unconstitutional, the most recently approved congressional map was used for the last general election.
