The Ohio Supreme Court for the third time rejected state legislative maps drawn by Republicans, a move that will likely postpone the state’s primaries currently scheduled for May 3.
The state Supreme Court ruled in a late Wednesday decision that the map was unfairly drawn to favor the GOP. The decision was a 4-3 split, with Republican Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor siding with the court’s three Democrats, and centered on the fact that the maps were drawn by staffers for state House Speaker Bob Cupp (R) and Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman (R).
On top of that, districts that were supposedly Democratic-friendly were in reality more competitive. For instance, of the Democratic-leaning districts, 26 favor the party by no more than 3 percentage points, a margin the justices said made them more akin to toss-up districts.
“The evidence shows that the individuals who controlled the map-drawing process exercised that control with the overriding intent to maintain as much of an advantage as possible for members of their political party,” the majority ruled. “The commission has again adopted a plan in which a disproportionate number of toss-up districts are labeled Democratic-leaning.”
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