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Ohio Republicans Are Gaming The System To Push Through Gerrymandered Districts
talkingpointsmemo.com ^ | 3/25/22 | Matt Shuham

Posted on 03/26/2022 5:45:50 AM PDT by cotton1706

A bipartisan majority on the Ohio Supreme Court has rejected Republican-drawn maps for U.S. congressional districts and state legislative districts a combined four times this year, handing Republicans rejection after rejection on the grounds that their proposed maps are illegally slanted in their own favor.

And yet, Republicans may end up on top anyway, thanks to a combination of stalling tactics and tricky legal maneuvers.

Early voting in the state’s primaries begins April 5. And amid ongoing legal uncertainty over the maps, Republican legislative leaders in the state, who are also key members of the state’s GOP-dominated redistricting commission, have refused to consider pushing those primaries back.

That, and the threat of federal courts intervening in the fight, have forced Democrats and fair maps advocates into a tense race against time — one they fear they may lose.

The time pressure is part of Republicans’ “grand strategy to run out the clock” and wind up with gerrymandered maps in their favor, said Richard Gunther, an emeritus professor of political science at The Ohio State University, and one of a small team of people who helped draft an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment that Ohio voters overwhelmingly supported in 2015.

“They delayed the process and then dragged their feet throughout all of these various maps and the appeals processes, and now they’re coming up against this artificial deadline,” Gunther told TPM, referring to the Republican-dominated redistricting commission and state legislature. “There is nothing in the Ohio constitution that requires a primary in May.”

(Excerpt) Read more at talkingpointsmemo.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Politics/Elections; US: Ohio
KEYWORDS: 2022election; 2024election; election2022; election2024; elections; mattshuham; mediawingofthednc; ohiostate; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; richardgunther
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Oh, I guess the shoe's on the other foot now.

They're VERY upset about foot-dragging. But NO mention about how the Census bureau intentionally slow-walked the final census figures (due 12/31/20) so they could be released by the next administration (so that the figures could include illegal aliens and Democrat states wouldn't lose as much representation as expected) instead of the current one.

And NO mention about how the Biden administration intentionally delayed the release of the census figures until late 2021 to delay state legislatures from re-working the districts.

These intentional foot-draggings have already delayed the NC primary from March to May because of ever-so-slow court decisions (no doubt intentional to help Pat McCrory, etc.)

But NOW they complain that the not-going-along-with-the-scheme Republicans aren't delaying the Ohio primary date like they wanted.

NOW they are worried about the clock pressure, when they've been using it as part of their own "grand strategy" all along.

Well too bad!

1 posted on 03/26/2022 5:45:50 AM PDT by cotton1706
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To: cotton1706

Yes that is nonsense. Our conservative Justice is voting with the Dems and has shown her true colors.
BTW, no one is happy about going from Jim Jordan’s district to Marcy (40 years in Congress) Kaptur’s district. Another sh—show.


2 posted on 03/26/2022 5:49:43 AM PDT by ohiogrammy (12)
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To: cotton1706
Yes. The left is all against gerrymandering unless it favors the left.

Typical double standard.

3 posted on 03/26/2022 5:53:26 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: cotton1706

Tell the courts to pound sand. For better or worse, it is the responsibility of the legislature.


4 posted on 03/26/2022 5:53:39 AM PDT by ComputerGuy (Heavily-medicated for your protection)
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To: ohiogrammy

I remember when the Ohio GOP tried to get Jim Jordan out by gerrymandering his district years ago. They still don’t like him, even if the people do. Marcy Kaptur is a nutcase.


5 posted on 03/26/2022 6:06:19 AM PDT by FamiliarFace (I wish “smart resume” would work for the real world so I could FF through the Biden admin BS.)
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To: cotton1706

Oh please, democrats generally have been dramatically making a mockery of our laws and systems forever to “legally” get their perverted ways. As has been said, gerrymandering is only ok when they do it, ends justify the means.


6 posted on 03/26/2022 6:12:13 AM PDT by jughandle (Big words anger me, keep talking. )
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To: cotton1706

Does the redistrcting matter as much as the massive voter fraud?

The Wisconsin report on ballot trafficking of 7% of the ballots, was astonishing. What was more impressive is that 7% was a nation wide number for all battleground states. The presenter put that clearly, “that means this was a mult-state coordinated event of ballot trafficking”

Combine that with Bribery, illegal voting, nursing home demented patients at 95% turnout, and “all balloting machines connected to internet” and what difference does redistributing make?


7 posted on 03/26/2022 6:16:02 AM PDT by Pete Dovgan
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To: cotton1706
This is the first redistricting since an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment was overwhelmingly passed in Ohio in 2018. I didn't read the full text this morning, but the basic idea was to make the district map more like Iowa and less like Ohio's have been. Counties and cities were to be kept in single districts as much as possible and boundary lengths were to be simplified. It looks like that was largely ignored.

Although I like the effects of the old method where a slightly Republican state has a great majority of its representatives as Republicans, you are no longer allowed to have districts like #9 which runs across 6 counties along the edge of Lake Erie to join Toledo and Cleveland to quarantine a large number of Democrats in one district and allow more districts to have Repulican majorities.

8 posted on 03/26/2022 6:18:46 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference of the Devil...-Churchill)
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To: cotton1706

There has been far more partisan gerrymandering right now - indeed to the extreme - on the Democrat side. These articles lamenting even minor amounts of GOP gerrymandering as shocking / abhorrent are just ... less than genuine, to put it mildly.


9 posted on 03/26/2022 6:24:49 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: marktwain

Only Democrats are allowed to do politics. GOP is supposed to be the Washington Generals, who used to provide “opposition” to the Harlem Globetrotters. So far it seems the case. Democrats have lost their minds, Republicans long ago lost their spines. Assuming they had one to lose.


10 posted on 03/26/2022 6:30:42 AM PDT by FiddlePig (The greatest threat to our sacred liberty is to not value it!””)
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To: cotton1706

how about the Media-Dem Party gaming the entire 2020 election, getting illegal changes to the voting system, blocking poll watchers “due to COVID”, and mail-in ballots, etc. Now they’re complaining about republicans gaming the system.


11 posted on 03/26/2022 6:34:56 AM PDT by euram
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To: marktwain

My take on how districts should be done.
Use zip codes, county lines, city lines, natural boundaries like rivers and streams, man made boundaries like major freeways and railroads.
Then use the decade census for these areas and create the smallest compact areas with the smallest perimeter length and with the smallest difference between the most populated district and least populated district. I believe that mathematically there would be only 1 solution. It would take a computer to find it. Use the same formula every 10 years.


12 posted on 03/26/2022 6:45:02 AM PDT by FredSchwartz (What ever happened to common sense and simple logic?)
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To: cotton1706

BS


13 posted on 03/26/2022 6:45:36 AM PDT by griswold3 (When chaos serves the State, the State will encourage chaos)
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To: marktwain

The Nevada Districts are a complete joke.

One city—Pahrump—has been totally split in half.


14 posted on 03/26/2022 6:56:49 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ohiogrammy

I bet not!

Time to introduce yourself to Marcy!


15 posted on 03/26/2022 7:00:48 AM PDT by sauropod (Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.)
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To: cotton1706

And no mention of how Democrat controlled states routinely use this tactic without any dissent from Dem-appointed courts. Here in Colorado the Dems are working furiously to gerrymandering Lauren Bobbert out of her seat.


16 posted on 03/26/2022 7:19:41 AM PDT by Hootowl
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To: cotton1706

I wish they would spend more time winning people over ideas, rather than drawing artificial lines.

Cheap one-hour presentations resembling a neighborhood block party/old fashioned tent revivals, as long as you have a good hook.


17 posted on 03/26/2022 7:24:06 AM PDT by Salvavida
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To: cotton1706

Awww the Democrats gamed the system to take over a presidential election. It’s okay.


18 posted on 03/26/2022 7:35:06 AM PDT by MrRelevant
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To: ohiogrammy

That “conservative” justice has always been a liberal, and sided with 3 of her teammates to derail the Republican redistricting plan. OTOH the next time a liberal Democrat judge sides with Republicans *anywhere* to thwart Democrat gerrymandering will be the very first time.

BTW you may not need to worry about Marcy Kaptur anymore — unless the liberals win again in court (gee, what are the odds?) her district now finally contains enough suburban territory that a Republican such as J.R. Majewski might actually be favored to win it in November.


19 posted on 03/26/2022 8:48:40 AM PDT by PermaRag (We have SO many targets, and -- for now -- the means to see they get what they deserve.)
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To: cotton1706

“The time pressure is part of Republicans’ “grand strategy to run out the clock” and wind up with gerrymandered maps in their favor, said Richard Gunther....”

Somebody please ask this sniveling little partisan Democrat (”anti-gerrymandering”, my ass) how he feels about Democrats doing *exactly* the same thing in Pennsylvania.


20 posted on 03/26/2022 8:50:23 AM PDT by PermaRag (We have SO many targets, and -- for now -- the means to see they get what they deserve.)
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