Redistricting is no easy task

COLUMBUS

Random thoughts on apportionment and legislative redistricting, the processes that likely will solidify which political party controls state government and Ohio’s voice in Washington, D.C., over the next 10 years:

Think it’s easy to draw legislative district lines to be compact and politically competitive?

Better think again.

That’s the message Secretary of State Jon Husted had during last week’s apportionment board meeting. Husted used the occasion to unveil a new section on the Secretary of State’s website that will enable Ohioans to create their own legislative district maps, then submit them for review by the five-member state board.

You can access the site at www.reshapeohio.org.

“This is not an easy process,” Husted said. “Those who embark on drawing their own maps will find that tinkering for a few minutes can quickly find it turning into hours, and you might find it more difficult than ... Angry Birds or something like that.”

He added, “Ohioans will find that drawing these districts isn’t as easy at it seems. ... They’ll find out it’s a lot easier to say than it is to do.”

The state website isn’t the only redistricting/apportionment exercise on the Internet.

The Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting, an effort of the League of Women Voters, the Midwest Democracy Network and Ohio Citizen Action, has its own online competition under way. And there will be cash prizes for the best plans submitted.

You can try it out at drawthelineohio.org.

If you want more in the way of citizen input, the apportionment board has set 11 public hearings to accept comments on how the new state legislative district lines should be drawn.

Granted, the sessions are scheduled before any proposed new lines have been presented to the public at large, so you won’t be able to complain or rejoice about how the changes will affect your home district.

But there will be ample opportunity to let the governor, secretary of state, auditor and two lawmakers who make up the apportionment board know what you think of the process.

The sessions start Aug. 22 in Lima and end Aug. 26 in Columbus. In between, there will be stops in Toledo, Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Canton, Marietta, Dayton, Cincinnati and Newark.

Complete details will be posted at www.reshapeohio.org.

Democratic lawmakers must be kicking themselves for failing to move then-Sen. Husted’s ballot issue last session that would have added members to the apportionment board and increased minority party involvement in the process.

The Senate OK’d the issue, but it stalled in the House. Only after the Republican sweep in the November election was it brought to the floor for a vote, which failed.

As is stands, House Minority Leader Armond Budish is the lone Democrat involved in the Republican-controlled process.

During the board’s initial meeting last week, he tried to amend the rules for the process to include more Democratic voices, saying he was trying to accomplish what Husted’s resolution would have done, with voter approval.

Republicans weren’t interested, and his amendments all failed.

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.