Hello Fair Districts!
This week we (finally) saw GOP congressional maps introduced in the Ohio House & Senate. (The Democratic Senate congressional map was introduced back in September: SB 237.)
House GOP map, HB 479
Senate GOP Map: SB 258
Many thanks to all who testified, submitted written testimony, attended, or watched the hearings in both the House and Senate committees on Thursday.
Heads up on hearings next week --
Senate Local Government & Elections Committee (SB 237 & SB 258): Mon, 11/8, 2:30pm, & Tues; 11/9, 9:30am, South Hearing Room at the Ohio Statehouse.
House Gov Oversight Committee (HB 479): : Not announced yet but check here.
You can ask to be added to the committee lists for notifications:
Ohio Senate Local Government and Elections Committee: Email Chair Gavarone.
Ohio House Government Oversight Committee: Email Chair Wilkins.
To testify in either committee, be sure to submit testimony to the committee chair at least 24 hours in advance! Remember to keep your testimony specific to the bill (map) under discussion, so, HB479 in the House, and either SB237 or SB258 in the Senate.
One suggestion for testimony is to talk specifically about how the lines as drawn in the bills affect your community.
Here are tips from Chris Cusack on how to zoom in on Dave’s Redistricting App to see the lines closer up:
How to Zoom in on your neighborhood in Dave’s Redistricting App
To Zoom in, use the ‘zoom in’ tool (a little + icon) in the upper left of the map. You can also the scroller on your mouse or trackpad. Either work well.
To manage where you zoom in, you can use the ‘Pan’ tool (the hand icon directly above the zoom in icon). Alternatively, just click and grab if the hand icon is already showing.
Click on the plus icon a few times, then use the hand icon to move to where you want to be. Repeat until you are at your desired location.
More Tips to See the Map Clearly
Expand the options under the “Colors” menu on the left.
Turn the Partisan Lean on and off by checking and unchecking the Partisan Lean box under the Colors tab on the left hand side of the map.
Turn on the Map Colors box (if you so choose) to give each district a different color.
Still under the “Colors” menu, reduce the Opacity by sliding the button to the left. Reducing opacity almost to zero allows you to see roads and other map features through the map colors.
In the “Overlays” menu, click Background Map. You may also want to check District Lines, County Lines, Labels, and Landmarks to get more information on your map!
When zoomed in, you should now be able to see city and street names.
To see actual city boundaries, just need to click to turn on the City Lines box. However, City Lines make the map a bit cluttered, so you may prefer to leave this box unchecked.
Last but not least, here are two new actions for you to take!
Please note: We are adding this BLOG feature to the Fair Districts website. That is where you will be able to see and share these email updates. Please check here regularly for the latest news and updates. To share this blog, either scroll down to the bottom of this blog and click on your way to share or you can scroll back to the top of the blog and click on the three vertical dots on the right hand side.
Thank you for all you do!
Mia Lewis for Common Cause Ohio and Fair Districts
Ohioan Mike Ahern testifying this week in the Ohio Senate. Source: Ohio Channel