Ohio redistricting competition results announced

On June 18th, the Ohio Redistricting Competition partners announced the results of their project years in the making.

The competition intended to place the long partisan process of remapping political districts into public hands by establishing objective criteria and rules to ensure a fair and competitive map that doesn’t favor any political party. The partners included former and current legislators as well as members from the Ohio League of Women Voters, Common Cause of Ohio and Ohio Citizen Action. The group made software to redraw the political map available for free online and received 14 proposals 3 of which were disqualified and 3 chosen as winning plans. Among the winning plans was a map drawn up by Illinois State Representative Mike Fortner (R-95). For an overview of the competition click here. To read a press release announcing the competition click here.

Update: The partners’ outreach campaign to the state’s press corp paid off with quite a few headlines:

AP/Dayton Daily News: Ohio announces redistricting contest winners

Mansfield News Journal: Contest sparks debate over shape of 4th Congressional District

Youngstown Vindicator: Editorial – Looking for a better way of redrawing political borders

Akron Beacon Journal: Editorial – Line up for Ohio

Springfield News Sun: Editorial – Contest shows real hope for better elections

In addition, The Brennan Center’s Justin Levitt wrote several blog posts about the successful experiment:

Drawing the Lines in Ohio: A Big Step Forward, The Devilish Details, The Structure of the Competition.