Ohio is preparing to redraw its legislative and congressional maps. During our virtual forum on Jan. 14, 2021, we welcomed speakers from All on the Line, Common Cause Ohio and How Things Work at the Statehouse — three groups doing amazing work to ensure our districts are fair. You can watch the forum here.

Voters approved reforms for both the state legislative and congressional mapmaking processes to avoid gerrymandering, where districts are drawn to favor one party over another, which is exactly what happened the last time our maps were drawn. This time around, it is still possible Republican legislators could impact the process by doing only the bare minimum of what is required of them.

That is where we come in. Our speakers provided important information, resources and calls to action below to help us advocate for fair maps and hold our lawmakers accountable.


Katy Shanahan
Ohio Director, All on the Line (AOTL) 

Resources:

Ohio Redistricting Flowchart

AOTL Monthly Volunteer Call (Mondays at 7) (link)

AOTL call for virtual testimony for all legislative hearings: (link)AOTL Letter to the Editor tool – general redistricting message

AOTL Letter to the Editor tool – specific to virtual testimony
Calls to Action: 

Even during a global pandemic, Ohio does not allow for virtual testimony on legislation. Join the effort to push for the state to allow this. Find more information here about the effort and use All on the Line’s tool to contact Republican leadership here.

Talk to your community about redistricting: Follow All on the Line and other organizations on social media and share important information to your networks. And check out the above links to write a Letter to the Editor to your local paper.

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Mia Lewis
Associate Director, Common Cause Ohio 

Resources:

Mia’s slide presentation detailing why Ohio’s districts are so bad and the fight to make them fair.

Event: Redistricting 101 webinar on Jan. 19 at 7pm. Registration link.

Mapmaking in 2021: Community mapping and mapmaking with DistrictR. Registration link.
Calls to Action: 

Get involved: Check out the webinars listed above to get educated on redistricting, the process and what is ahead.

Learn about maps: Join Common Cause for opportunity to talk about community mapping and check out mapmaking software. Stay tuned for a mapmaking competition!

Follow Common Cause for important Calls to Action in the future.

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Rachel Coyle
Co-Founder, How Things Work at the Statehouse 

State lawmakers have to work on the state budget and if we don’t push hard, they will wait until the budget is finished before moving on to redrawing maps. In addition, with this new redistricting process, Ohio law requires the state legislature to hold public hearings and accept maps from the public. However, it does not require them to be held around the state or even require them to announce the hearings beforehand. It’s important that we advocate for the public to have a say in this process!
Calls to Action

Redistricting Town Halls: Contact your legislators via email, phone, and Twitter and push for town hall meetings to start NOW.

Virtual Testimony: As mentioned above, the state must allow virtual testimony. Here is more on the effort: link.

Stay Alert: Follow the Facebook page for urgent calls to action!

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