Ohio Issue 1, Congressional Redistricting Procedures Amendment, was approved by Ohio voters in the May 8, 2018 primary election. Official elections results show that the ballot issue was approved by 1,178,468 votes in favor to 395,088 votes against. According to the certified ballot language, available on the Secretary of State’s website:
“The proposed amendment would:
- End the partisan process for drawing congressional districts, and replace it with a process with the goals of promoting bipartisanship, keeping local communities together, and having district boundaries that are more compact.
- Ensure a transparent process by requiring public hearings and allowing public submission of proposed plans.
- Require the General Assembly or the Ohio redistricting Commission to adopt new congressional districts by bipartisan vote for the plan to be effective for the full 10-year period.
- Require that if a plan is adopted by the General Assembly without significant bipartisan support, it cannot be effective for the entire 10-year period and must comply with explicit anti-gerrymandering requirements.
[…] the amendment will become effective immediately.”
The result is that Section 1 of Article XI, taking effect on January 1, 2021, will be amended, and Sections 1, 2, and 3 of Article XIX will be enacted to establish a process for congressional redistricting. The full text of the amendment is available here: SJR 5 (132nd GA (2018)). Ohio Constitution News blog shared a succinct explanation in this post on February 15, 2018. For additional statements, the certified arguments for and against are still available from the Secretary of State’s website.
