OHIOANS
DESERVE
FAIR
REPRESENTATION
HOW RIGGED DISTRICTS HURT OUR
DEMOCRACY
Democracy works when citizens choose their representatives, but gerrymandering takes power from the people and lets representatives choose their voters.
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Gerrymandering is a way to rig political outcomes by creating districts that always vote for the same political party.
It allows the party in charge to stay in charge by weakening the power of the opposing party, and making individual voters less impactful.
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The more this happens, the more untouchable legislators become.
Gerrymandering distorts democracy, leading to political outcomes
and policy decisions that aren’t what the majority of voters actually want.
OHIO IS ONE OF THE MOST GERRYMANDERED STATES IN THE US
Ohioans overwhelmingly support fair districting. We've passed two constitutional amendments in 2015 and 2018 to reform electoral map making, but Ohio politicians and lobbyists keep finding ways to manipulate the laws in their favor.
Over and over again, Ohio comes in as one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the country, even after Ohioans voted overwhelmingly in favor of these reforms. The reforms couldn't have the impact we all hoped because ultimately, the map makers were still partisan— Ohio's system still allow's politicians to choose their own voters.
In 2023 and 2024, thousands of volunteers worked tirelessly to gather more than 730,000 signatures to get the Citizens Not Politicians citizen initiative onto the ballot, which gave Ohio voters the chance to pass a constitutional amendment that would give citizens the power. The Citizens Not Politicians amendment, aka Issue 1, was an independent redistricting commission designed to put people first, not politicians' self-interest.
But some of the same Ohio politicians who benefitted the most from gerrymandering controlled too many levers of power and manipulated enough voters into thinking voting against the amendment was a vote in favor of fair maps that Issue 1 lost at the ballot.
Because the Ohio Constitution demands it, 2025 is a redistricting year in the Buckeye state. Ohio law says that district maps passed without agreement from a bipartisan majority of the Ohio Redistricting Commission must be redrawn mid-decade.
2025 Redistricting Timeline
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September 30, 2025: Deadline for Ohio General Assembly to pass map
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October 31, 2025: Deadline for Ohio Redistricting Commission to pass map
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November 30, 2025: Deadline for Ohio General Assembly to pass map
Go here for details.
Ohio politicians are more unaccountable than ever. They know that our extreme gerrymandering will allow them to ignore the needs and will of their constituents as long as our laws let them get away with it. Gerrymandering lets politicians pick power over people every time.
For decades, we have been fighting for fair districts so we have a government that works the way it's supposed to: of the people, for the people, and by the people. Ohio and Ohioans deserve better than this. We deserve fair representation.
IT'S 2025: NOW WHAT?
WHO WE ARE
Fair Districts Ohio is a coalition of grassroots organizations committed to fairer state legislative and congressional maps. We are a non-partisan team of voting rights experts and organizations working to create a better and more equitable representational democracy. The coalition is led by Common Cause Ohio, ACLU Ohio, and the League of Women Voters of Ohio, and joined by the Ohio A. Philip Randolph Institute, the Ohio Council of Churches, the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition, and other good government organizations.
