Tom Vodrey, Opinion Editor–

This November could be a turning point in Ohio. No, not in any of our elections to send presidents, senators, or representatives to Washington—as important as those races are. I write instead of the Citizens Not Politicians ballot initiative to amend the Ohio Constitution to create a non-partisan, citizen-led redistricting process. That amendment has the potential to usher in a new era of good governance and fairness, something which our state has sorely lacked.

Both chambers of our Statehouse have been elected using maps that they themselves drew to benefit their own reelection, a practice known as gerrymandering. Instead of voters choosing their representatives, in Ohio representatives choose their voters.

While Republicans make up about 54% of Ohio’s electorate, they control 66% of Ohio’s U.S. House seats, 68% of seats in the state House, and 78% in the state Senate. This is not only unfair, but in the opinion of the Ohio Supreme Court seven times over, illegal. However, the opinions of citizens and even of courts can be ignored in a system which is rigged in favor of a single party.

Just look at the work of our Statehouse to see the corrosive impact of this unaccountability. The Statehouse passed just 16 bills in 2023, its least productive year since 1955. What’s worse is that what little work it has done will make you wish they passed even less.

Without fear of electoral consequences, our Statehouse has become one which comforts the comfortable and afflicts the afflicted. In January, Ohio Republicans forced through a ban on lifesaving gender-affirming care for minors, over the veto of Governor DeWine. While 46% of children in Cleveland and 55% in Youngstown live in poverty, our Statehouse’s idea of protecting children is barring a handful of transgender girls from participating in sports.

The will of voters has become a mere nuisance to our Statehouse. It was that gerrymandered body which attempted to swindle Ohio voters out of their ability to amend the state constitution last August. The same body which used official government websites to campaign against voter-led efforts to enshrine the right to choose in the state constitution. And the body which is currently contemplating taking away from courts the ability to enforce that amendment which 57% of Ohio voters approved.

If not voters, who are our elected officials listening to? Look no further than special interests like FirstEnergy, who bribed our then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and other members of the state government to pass legislation to use $1.3 billion in taxpayer money to bail out the energy company’s failing power plants.

Not even Denison is safe from the claws of our Statehouse. In Senate Bill 83, that same gerrymandered legislature has proposed draconian restrictions on the teaching of contentious historical subjects in college curriculums. If the Statehouse gets their way, that same bill would eliminate the collective bargaining rights of university faculty and staff too.

Fortunately, we don’t have to sit back and watch. Non-partisan groups including the Ohio League of Women Voters have begun a push to reform the redistricting process in Ohio to check the power of politicians. This Citizens Not Politicians amendment would create a 15-member commission of politically, demographically, and geographically diverse citizens to fairly draw the districts of our elected officials, similar to processes which have been used in seven other states to great success.
If you’d like to do something so that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish in Ohio—contact Colleen Goodhart at [email protected], Carol Miller at [email protected] or Robin Brown at [email protected]. All three are collecting signatures on campus so that the Citizens Not Politicians reform can appear on the ballot in November. Anyone who is registered to vote in Ohio, including those registered on campus, can, and should, sign. Although it may not seem like it, it’s still our Statehouse, and it’s beyond time we remind them of that.