COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — For the second time, the Ohio Supreme Court has struck down the state’s redistricted legislative maps.
In a ruling released Monday, the court sided with the League of Women Voters of Ohio, which had filed an objection to the Ohio House and Senate maps adopted on Jan. 22 by a party-line vote.
In the ruling where the court said the approved redistricting plan was ‘invalid in its entirety,” the court set a 9 a.m. Feb. 17 deadline for the statehouse’s Ohio Redistricting Commission to present two new maps to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. The commission then has one day to submit the plan to the court.
Once the new plan is filed with the court, anyone wanting to object to the plan has until three days after that plan is passed by the commission to file their objections.
The plan rejected by the court Monday would have created 57 Republican-leaning districts for the state’s House, with 42 Democratic-leaning seats. On the Senate side, Republicans would have had a 20-13 advantage of Republican-leaning seats.
Back in September, Ohio’s high court struck down the first attempt by the Republican-leaning commission to present redistricted maps, saying the plan unfairly favored Republicans, defying a constitutional amendment passed by Ohio voters in 2015.
According to the latest data released by the state, Ohio’s political makeup is 54 percent Republican, 46 percent Democratic.
The maps establish the districts representing Ohioans in both the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives.
As passed by a 5-2 party-line vote, the maps would have only been in effect for four years. If they had passed by a bipartisan vote, they would have been in effect for 10 years.
A third redistricting map, setting 15 districts for the U.S. House of Representatives, will be decided by the Statehouse as a whole.