COLUMBUS, Ohio – Backers of a ballot issue that would change how state legislative and congressional districts are drawn in Ohio say ballot language written by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is illegally manipulative.

The charge by the Citizens Not Politicians campaign comes after it received the proposed language from LaRose, a Republican. Most elected Republicans in Ohio have said they oppose the amendment, which could potentially realign the state’s political maps and give Democrats more seats.

LaRose’s proposed ballot language title starts with the phrase: “To create an appointed redistricting commission not elected by or subject to removal by the voters of the state.”

The ballot language will be finalized Friday at a meeting of the Ohio Ballot Board, overseen by LaRose’s office.

Maureen O’Connor, Ohio’s former Supreme Court chief justice and the lone Republican who voted with Democrats numerous times to reject political maps that she concluded were illegally gerrymandered to benefit the GOP, criticized LaRose’s proposal. O’Connor is one of the leaders of the Citizens Not Politicians campaign.

“The self-dealing politicians who have rigged the legislative maps now want to rig the Nov. 5 election by illegally manipulating the ballot language,” O’Connor said in a statement. “We will make our case for fair and accurate language before the Ballot Board and if necessary take it to court. The language proposed today violates Article XVI, Section 1 of the Ohio Constitution, which prohibits language designed to ‘mislead, deceive, or defraud the voters.”

LaRose’s proposal is 873 words, as opposed the 172-word Citizens Not Politicians’ ballot language proposal. The full amendment is 17 pages.

If passed, the amendment would replace the current commission of elected officials with a new redistricting commission, made up of 15 members divided equally among Democrats, Republicans and political independents, who are to represent different demographic and geographic areas of Ohio. Current and former politicians, political party officials and lobbyists would be prohibited from sitting on the commission. Retired judges from both political parties would select commission members.

The amendment would require single-member districts that are geographically contiguous, comply with federal law, preserve communities and correspond with partisan preferences of Ohio voters.

Dan Lusheck, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office, defended LaRose’s language as reflective of amendment.

“The board is required by law to identify the substance of the proposal to be voted on,” he said. “That’s exactly what the proposed ballot summary does. We invited input from both sides of the issue, and we relied on language from the petition and the amendment itself. The final draft summary gives Ohioans a fair and factual understanding of the proposed amendment. Additional input from members of the ballot board and the general public will be considered during Friday’s meeting.”

LaRose’s proposed ballot language says the amendment would repeal anti-gerrymandering protections that nearly three-quarters of Ohio voters approved in 2015 and 2018 – but which critics such as O’Connor believe did not actually safeguard against gerrymandering when they were used after the 2020 Census.

Those ballot issues created the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a panel composed of the governor, secretary of state, state auditor and four state legislative leaders, including the minority leaders in the state House and Senate. The commission defied Ohio Supreme Court rulings that found their maps to be illegally gerrymandered in violation of the rules voters approved.

The current system has produced historic supermajorities for Republicans in the Ohio Statehouse and a massive advantage in the state’s congressional delegation, even though Republicans won about 56% of the vote between 2014 and 2022, according to court records.

LaRose states that the amendment would establish “a new taxpayer-funded commission of appointees required to manipulate the boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts to favor the two largest political parties in the state of Ohio.”

LaRose emphasizes that the commission is taxpayer-funded twice in his proposed language. But so is the current Ohio Redistricting Commission, of which LaRose is a member. The commission hired outside experts to help draw maps in 2022 and is staffed by public employees.

LaRose also notes the districts would no longer be required to be compact and that cities and counties could be spilt and divided. The Ohio constitution currently requires these standards.

LaRose notes that Ohio voters would be prohibited from “filing a lawsuit challenging a redistricting plan in any court, except if the lawsuit challenges the proportionality standard applied by the commission, and then only before the Ohio Supreme Court.”

The constitution’s current redistricting language also sends litigation directly to the Ohio Supreme Court, or federal courts.

This isn’t the first time LaRose has proposed loaded language on the ballot. In last year’s abortion rights constitutional amendment, LaRose got language on the ballot calling a fetus an “unborn child” and saying the amendment would allow people the right to their own “medical treatment,” which was a nod to allegations abortion opponents said that the amendment would allow youth the right to change their sex without their parents’ consent or knowledge. LaRose later admitted that anti-abortion advocates helped craft the language. The amendment won at the polls.

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