Ohio voters will start heading to the polls in 42 days for early voting and Election Day is now only 70 days away, which means campaigns are ramping up to be full speed ahead after Labor Day.
There is only one state issue on the ballot this fall, called Issue 1, brought forward by Citizens Not Politicians. Some Ohioans are hitting the streets to help make sure every voter knows about it.
“Hi there, we’re volunteers with Citizens Not Politicians,” Issue 1 volunteer Michael Ahern said to a voter. “Your signature worked, we got enough signatures, it is going to be on the ballot in November.”
Ahern said despite reform being passed in both 2015 and 2018, these past several years, watching the redistricting commission has been “frustrating.”
“When you have politicians that are involved in creating those district lines and then manipulating them for party purposes, then that undermines democracy,” he said.
Right now, the Ohio Redistricting Commission is made up of seven elected officials. The make-up changes depending on who is elected to certain offices, but there are currently five Republicans and two Democrats on it. The last set of maps they passed were unanimous.
Issue One aims to take politicians out of the map redistricting process, and instead create a 15-person commission with five Democrats, five Republicans and five independent voters.
“This initiative prevents politicians, lobbyists, major party donors from serving on the commission. And that is a huge difference from the current process,” Ahern said. “You can’t have a perfect system. But there are many checks and balances in this proposal.”
A spokesperson for “Ohio Works,” the group that will run the opposition campaign, said they are currently “laying the groundwork” for their campaign. But in a written argument against Issue 1, Ohio Works said the amendment is a “cynical attempt to trick Ohio voters,” and said it is “nothing more than a partisan power grab by out of state special interests.”
Top Ohio officials have also come out against Issue 1, including Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima), and Attorney General Dave Yost (R-Ohio). Those who oppose it, in part, said it will leave Ohioans with no recourse if they are unhappy; Republican strategist Mike Gonidakis, who is not part of the official opposition, agrees.
“They want to have unelected people that answer to nobody come up with the maps that they think is best. That’s undemocratic,” Gonidakis said.
These campaigns are not just about getting to Ohioans in person — Citizens Not Politicians has already spent nearly $17 million on advertising. It is unclear how much Ohio Works has raised or spent, but as of July, when the last campaign finance report was due, they have not raised or spent any money yet.
“Be able to saturate, you know, all the Facebooks and the Twitters, Instagrams, the social media aspect of that, that is a better price point, number one,” Gonidakis said. “And number two, more people are on social media.”
The language for Issue 1 that will appear on ballots could still be subject to change. It was approved by the Ohio Ballot Board on Aug. 16, but Citizens Not Politicians almost immediately took it to the Ohio Supreme Court to challenge what the board passed on party lines.
The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 7. Early voting begins on Oct. 8, and Election Day is Nov. 5.
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