The Republican-controlled Ohio Ballot Board on Thursday approved a new summary of Issue 2, the redistricting reform proposal, to appear on the ballot for the Nov. 6 election.
But Democrats, who objected to the old ballot language because it was incomplete, remain unsatisfied. They said the new language is chock full of legalese that will confuse voters.
“It should not take three years of law school to understand an issue,” said Mark Griffin, one of two Democrats on the five-member ballot board.
The board approved the new language on a 3-2 vote along party lines at an emergency meeting at the Statehouse.
The meeting followed an Ohio Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that invalidated ballot language approved last month — also on a 3-2, party-line vote — because it omitted significant aspects of the proposed constitutional amendment to establish a new redistricting process.
The Issue 2 summary approved Thursday is more than twice as long as the old one. It includes, verbatim, several sections from the full text of the proposed constitutional amendment.
Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican who chairs the ballot board, said the new summary of Issue 2, which was prepared by his staff, addresses the court’s concerns. But he acknowledged that ballot wording generally can be confusing if it is too long.
“We’re trying to meet that happy medium of making sure it’s complete and has all the information that the courts asked but also that it’s done in a way that’s understandable,” said Husted, a critic of Issue 2.
Issue 2 would establish a 12-member citizens commission to approve new congressional and legislative districts for Ohio every 10 years. The current redistricting process, controlled by elected officials, is unfair to voters because it allows the party in power to draw maps that increase its chances of electoral success, supporters of redistricting reform argue. Republicans who dominate state government controlled the recent redistricting process.
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