House Democrats: The fight for fair, constitutional maps is not over

COLUMBUS – House Minority Leader and Commission member Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) issued a statement today urging the Redistricting Commission to reconvene as soon as possible in order to fulfill their constitutional obligation and comply with the Court’s order. Democrats had sent a letter Friday inviting all the Republican commissioners to join them for a meeting of the Redistricting Commission this morning at 10 a.m. While both Democratic commissioners showed up this morning ready to get to work, they were locked out of the meeting room, and no Republican commissioners showed up.

“The fight for fair, constitutional maps is not over—for 2022 or the rest of the decade. We have a constitutional obligation to produce fair state legislative maps for this upcoming fall election. Republican commissioners can lock all the doors they want, but Democrats won’t give up. We will be here every day to protect our democracy and uphold the will of the people,” said Leader Russo.

The Commission is under a state court order to adopt new, constitutional state legislative maps by May 6. So far, no Redistricting Commission meetings have been scheduled despite repeated invitations and requests from Democrats.