(AP) The newly drawn legislative district maps in Ohio were contested for the third time Monday, when state and national civic groups filed suit alleging the Republican-controlled redistricting process violated voters’ rights.
The newest lawsuit, filed in the Ohio Supreme Court by three advocacy organizations and six individual Ohioans, seeks to block the maps of Ohio House and Senate districts passed Sept. 16 along party lines by the GOP-dominated Ohio Redistricting Commission and require the commission to draw new districts.
“These maps should not be allowed to exist,” Pierette “Petee” Talley, one of the named plaintiffs, said in a statement. “If the maps remain in place, millions of Ohioans, particularly Black Ohioans and other people of color who live in these gerrymandered communities like Toledo, won’t have a voice in any policies impacting their lives that come out of the Columbus statehouse.”
