(Columbus) – Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose released the following statement regarding the Ohio Redistricting Commission's bipartisan, unanimous approval of new Congressional districts:
"One thing I know with certainty in redistricting is that no one is ever completely happy with the outcome. I went into this process with two key objectives: adopting a set of districts that comply with Ohio’s constitution and accurately reflect our state’s political will while also avoiding a potentially chaotic and costly referendum fight.
Dark money special interest groups were already vowing to take the new map to the ballot, almost certainly resulting in costly litigation, disruption to our election process, and confusion for Ohio voters. The state constitution requires us to administer elections on the current district map until a new one takes effect. If opponents of this new 12-3 map had successfully filed a petition to challenge it, a federal court likely would’ve ordered us to use the current 10-5 map for the 2026 election cycle. At that point, we would’ve had no choice but to move the statewide congressional primary election to August at a cost of $50 million to taxpayers. A bipartisan outcome in the commission avoids all of that.
Our election officials already face the prospect of at least six proposed constitutional amendments on next year’s ballot. Adding a third statewide election to that workload is neither good for the vitality of our system nor helpful to the voters. While I didn’t draw this map, it more accurately reflects Ohio’s constitutional requirements, as well as the political proportionality of the electorate over the last decade. By reaching a unanimous, bipartisan outcome, we avoided a referendum that could’ve resulted in something much worse. For that reason, I voted yes."
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