Town Hall speakers say redistricting will decide whether people are represented fairly – Canton Repository

CANTON State Rep. Thomas West and panelists Wednesday night sought to inspire an audience of more than 50 to spread the word that the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional and state legislative district lines will determineif their congressional membersand state legislators truly represent them.

Thepandemic, how the criminal justice system affects people of color, crime, quality of life, climate change, the rising cost of living, the economy, jobs, infrastructureand immigration have been at the forefront of many voters' minds.

West, a Democrat fromCanton, and other speakers faced the challenge of adding to that list the topic of redistricting, a complicated and seemingly arcane process that significantly affects political influence. The town hall was held at the Metropolitan Event Centre in downtown Canton.

No Republicans spoke at the town hall, and there was no indication any Republicans participated. West said anyone was welcome to speak.

The speakers criticizedGov. Mike DeWine for not yet convening the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which he mustdo by August under a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2015.

They say that the commission can start holding public hearings before the U.S. Census Bureau is expected to deliver crucial, updated population data from 2020 on which new congressional and state legislative districts will be based.

Districts must roughly be equal in population. The data is about four months late due to the difficulties of collecting the information during the pandemic last year, the bureau says.

The redistricting commission's job is to produce new district maps for Ohio House and Ohio Senate districts. The commission must release the first proposed maps by Sept. 1. It's also charged with producing a new congressional district map if the Ohio General Assembly fails to do so with sufficient support from Democrats.

The commission will be made up of the governor, Ohio secretary of state, state auditor, a Republican appointee of the Ohio House speaker, a Republican appointee of the Ohio Senate president, a Democratic appointee of the minority leader in the House and a Democratic appointee of the minority leader in the Senate.

Republicans will have five seats and Democrats two seats on the commission.

If an insufficient number of commission members of both parties can't agree on a district map, then the commission can only issue maps that would last for the 2022 and 2024 elections. And the process would start all over with new districts for the next six years.

While the Ohio Constitution now bans partisan gerrymandering, Democrats are suspicious that Republicans, whocontrol the process, will find ways to circumvent the safeguards.

So the speakers Wednesday urged the public to assert pressure on Republicans not to gerrymander the maps.

Katy Shanahan, the Ohio director for All on the Line, a group against gerrymandering, told the town hall audience that gerrymandering is "a form of cheating" that resulted in Republicans holding super majorities in the Ohio House and Senate despite them not winning a super majority of votes. And that Ohio is "home to one of the most gerrymandered districts in the country."

She said gerrymandering splits communities. Shanahan said she lived on a north Columbus street near the district border where much of her neighborhood was in another congressional district. But her district also included far away Mansfield and Zanesville.

"We're trying to minimize the difference between how we vote and who actually represents us," said Shanahan. "... We have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to right the ship of our democracy in this state and to get the fair maps that we deserve and that we've been denied for the last decade."

Randy Gonzalez, the former chairman of the Stark County Democratic Party, said Democrat Joyce Healy-Abrams in the 2012 election against Republican incumbent Bob Gibbs raised $250,000. While she won the portion of Stark County in the 7th Congressional District, she lost in the other counties in the district that are predominately rural.

Gonzalez, the Jackson Township fiscal officer, said after what happened to Healy-Abrams, it's become difficult to recruit talented Democratic challengers to run against Gibbs of Lakeville in Holmes County because the district has such a high proportion of Republican voters.

State Sen. Vernon Sykes, a Democrat fromAkron, was a town hall panelist who was involved in negotiating constitutional amendments designed to prevent gerrymandering.

"Hopefully, we're going to make some improvements and definitely not be considered the worst gerrymandered state in the nation," he said.

Reach Robert at (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

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Town Hall speakers say redistricting will decide whether people are represented fairly - Canton Repository