The third set of legislative maps has been rejected by the state Supreme Court. Now what?
COLUMBUS, Ohio — There are no state or congressional districts, no ballots made and no clear direction of what to do.Well, we may be able to. Here are the ways News 5 found to get us to primary day.
“It's pretty clear that they, the legislative leadership, want to control as much of the redistricting process as it can and is prepared to give only as little as they think they can persuade a majority of the Supreme Court to accept,” Jonathan Entin, Case Western Reserve University law professor and expert in courts, constitutional law, said.
The Court said that the Republicans went too far to skew the maps in favor of their party, their 74-page document showed. So what happens next? There are a number of options. Here is what could realistically happen for this election cycle.The Commission could create fair, bipartisan maps. On Thursday, DeWine actually said this was the best option to move forward.
“The Court gerrymandering rules that apply now may not apply to the mid-decade maps. I don't think that's the most sensible way to read the amendments, but the way they're written somebody could make a persuasive argument that the Redistricting Commission could do whatever it wants in a mid-decade.” “Depending on how adamant the legislative leadership is, they might try to come up with some other mechanism. It is possible that we could see some kind of parallel lawsuit about legislative districts.”Having a divided primary would raise a lot of questions and concerns, especially from LaRose, who previously told News 5 he would rather not have a split primary. It will cost taxpayers a significant amount of money. It could also cause voter confusion.