CINCINNATI —Yard sign season is in full swing in Ohio, with just over a month left until the November election. Besides signs for the presidential election, you may have also noticed signs for or against Issue 1 popping up in yards across the state.

Issue 1 is Ohio’s proposed redistricting amendment. Voters will have the option to either vote “Yes” or “No” on it.

Voting “No” would mean the redistricting process remains unchanged in Ohio.

Right now, districts for Ohio’s House, Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives are drawn by the Ohio Redistricting Commission. The commission was approved by Ohio voters in 2015. It was created to end gerrymandering. Previously, lines were drawn by members of the Ohio General Assembly.

In 2020, the commission was tasked for the first time with redrawing three different maps during the redistricting process, which happens every 10 years after the U.S. census. However, those maps led to a lengthy court battle in 2021 and 2022 where the Ohio Supreme Court ruled seven different times that the maps drawn by the Republican-dominated commission were “unconstitutional gerrymanders.”

The Ohio Redistricting Commission is currently made up of seven members, including the Governor and Secretary of State. All seven members are elected politicians.

Voting “Yes” would remove politicians from the map-making process.

A group called “Citizens Not Politicians” led the charge to get Issue 1 on the November ballot. If the ballot measure passes, it would establish a redistricting commission made up of regular citizens and not politicians.

The new 15-member commission would be made up of five Republicans, five Democrats and five independents or members of other political parties. The group would be called the Citizens Redistricting Commission. Any qualified Ohio voter would be able to apply to be part of this group.

The amendment requires a majority of votes to pass or fail.

Read the original piece here.