COLUMBUS, Ohio - Did you ever think you could do a better job than your legislative representative in Columbus? A new competition to draw fair congressional and legislative maps could give you a chance to prove it and win money, too.
On the day that state officials debuted a website for citizens to provide redistricting input, a nonpartisan team of voter advocacy organizations called Fair Districts Ohio launched a contest to create compact and competitive state legislative districts that focus on keeping communities together instead of protecting particular political parties or legislators.
League of Women Voters of Ohio executive director Jen Miller said the competition will bring “people power to the redistricting process,” noting that Ohio voters approved a new redistricting process in 2015 and 2018 elections to fight gerrymandering. The new procedures limit how counties and cities can be split between districts, and require more input from minority parties.
“Now it’s time for the people of Ohio to hold mapmakers accountable to the letter and spirit of those reforms,” Miller continued. “We are calling on everyone to do their part: draw your own map, attend a public hearing, or get your community group involved.”
Miller called the contest “a way of influencing the outcome of the maps themselves, as well as just being something really fun for the general public to engage in.
“Given that we only do this once every 10 years, part of our priority is also making sure that we have a next generation of mapmakers who participate in this process and could potentially be leaders the next time,” she said.
The first prize for the state legislative map contest will be $1,000, with $750 offered as the top prize for a new congressional map, which has fewer districts. Second and third prizes in both competitions are $500 and $250. Maps will be evaluated on whether they comply with federal and state laws, are representatively fair, and demonstrate best practices for compactness and respect for local political jurisdictional divides rather than being gerrymandered along partisan lines.
Winning maps will be submitted to the state legislature for consideration, and non-winning entries will be entered into a raffle for additional prizes.
The deadline to submit new state legislative maps on the group’s contest website is Sept. 6, and the deadline for new congressional maps is Sept. 15. The time to draw maps for the competition is shorter than usual because release of the Census information needed to draw the maps was delayed for coronavirus-related reasons. People of any age can submit entries, and competitors need not live in Ohio.
Common Cause Ohio Executive Director Catherine Turcer said the winner of the contest for drawing Ohio’s state legislative map 10 years ago was a GOP state legislator from Illinois named Mike Fortner, who enjoys drawing maps and also had his son enter the contest.
“This is a ‘come one, come all’ kind of a situation,” said Turcer. “We will get better maps if just about everybody participates than if we give rules that restrict people from participating.”
“We anticipate it being an exchange of ideas,” said Miller.
Chris Cusack, an emeritus professor of geography at Keene State College in New Hampshire, has volunteered to provide technical assistance for contest entrants with online mapping software for the contest that he describes as “user friendly,” and other aspects of mapmaking. He will also help evaluate the final maps, along with judges who include other academic experts in political science, mapping, geography and data.
Miller said that Cusack will provide feedback on maps submitted before deadline and will help entrants fix those that aren’t compliant so they can resubmit them.
“This competition is for everyone interested in representational fairness and equity. It is for everyone interested in learning more about the creation of political districts. It is for everyone interested in making a difference,” said Cusack.
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