Thread by @allontheline_oh

🗣️ HAPPENING SOON

The final public input hearing on the state legislative maps that will impact our political future for the next 10 years.

There are 87 (!!) people signed up to testify today, which would be shocking if we didn't already know y'all are ready for #FairMaps!

While we wait for the hearing to start at 10:30am, why not get your morning off on the right foot by giving the Commission leaders a call/email to tell them to OPPOSE the GOP-proposed map.

Take action now! bit.ly/3AhLvxG

Here we go...

Speaker Cupp opens by mentioning that there is a remote location in Marietta where folks can appear to give testimony being virtually played in the Statehouse.

Virtual testimony makes this process more accessible and it should've been available for everyone.

The Commission is asking witnesses to limit their remarks to just 3 minutes. Cupp also asking that witnesses not be repetitive in their talking points.

We'll note that THIS is why we demanded the process start in the spring so that we weren't cut off or limited in what we say.

Will also note that Ohioans are repeating themselves because the Commission...isn't listening to us.

And we'll keep saying the same things until they do.

Up first is a witness who notes he took off work to come testify today because he think it's that important. Notes that the GOP-proposed maps only came out on Thursday, just days before the final deadline - not leaving us a lot of time to weigh in.

Up next is Amina Barhumi from @CAIROhio and as a Commission on the OCRC (@OHRedistrict) - she's testifying in support of OCRC's map because they're fair, representative of our diverse communities, and reflect how we vote.

Up next is Deacon Nick Bates who lives in Hilltop - a neighborhood on the south side of Columbus that is paired under the GOP-proposed map with New Albany, a suburb across multiple highways, on the other side of town, and with little similarities.

That's not a fair map.

Deacon Bates notes that his neighborhood is cracked into multiple state House and Senate districts, carving apart community hubs (like the rec center) from schools, grocery stores, and more.

Up now is Rachel Bowman from our partner org @ForOurFutureOH!

Rachel says that gerrymandered districts have meant Ohioans have been denied real representation for the last 10 years, our process hasn't lived up to the reforms, and we're not seeing the #FairMaps that we deserve.

Up now is Jeniece Brock with our partner org @OHorganizing and as the Vice-Chair of the OCRC (@OHRedistrict)!

Jeniece is testifying in support of the OCRC maps, drawn in an open, transparent process with nearly 2400 community maps that drove out it drew districts.

Jeniece details that all Ohioans deserve fair representation so that our communities can elect leaders who will advance our interests and fight for our needs while their in office - from schools to health care, job and family services, we need real representation under #FairMaps

Jeniece details that @OHRedistrict started its public hearings in May to ensure we had enough time to actually hear from Ohioans about how best to represent them under new district maps.

The Commission has not done the same.

Up next is Maria Bruno with @EqualityOhio who rightfully points out that the rules of the game have changed *while* we're in the hearings. Our time's cut, we haven't been brought into the process, we haven't seen maps with enough time to give input.

That's not what we demanded.

Maria talks about how LGBTQ+ Ohioans have been negatively impacted under gerrymandered maps because we cannot elect legislators who - as Ohioans overwhelmingly do - support policies (like the Ohio Fairness Act) that serve them.

Maria also formerly ran the Ohio Votes program - a nonprofit statewide voter registration and GOTV program aimed to get low-income Ohioans to engage in democracy. She too often heard from Ohioans that they don't feel like their voice/vote matter because of our gerrymandered maps.

Maria begs the Commission to prove her wrong - to pass maps that are fair, to live up to the reforms that we overwhelmingly approved, and that serve all Ohioans.

We join you, Maria, in your pleas.

Up now is Susan who will break down the provision in the Constitution that requires that maps are drawn to reflect how we actually vote.

As a reminder, in the last 10 years we've voted 54% R - 46%D, that means we should see 44 Dem House seats and 15 Dem Senate seats.

Interjecting here to say that within minutes, Sen. Huffman, Sec. LaRose, and Auditor Faber left the hearing room.

This is the final time they get to hear directly from Ohioans about what we need in new maps. They clearly don't want to hear from us.

Up now is Kobie with our partner org @ForOurFutureOH who rightfully points out that this process should've started even before we got census data.

We agree! We started asking for this process to get started in February to ensure all Ohioans had a say in draft and final maps.

Speaker Cupp has also left the hearing.

There are just 3 remaining commissioners in attendance.

Up now is Prof. Dick Gunther and Greg Moore testifying in support of the OCRC (@OHRedistrict) maps - because they represent a group, they are permitted to provide 10 minutes of testimony about their proposed maps.

The OCRC published their maps & report to explain them last month

The OCRC report explains the transparent process it hosted, starting in May, their virtual public hearings, the 2350 community maps they collected from Ohioans, and the ultimate unity maps that reflect that community input.

Their maps are #FairMaps and should be considered!

Worthing noting, too, that the OCRC published their maps for public review on Aug 25 thereby proving that it was very possible to have done so before the 9/1 deadline using the same census data the Comm'n has access to

The OCRC - from beginning to end - is a model for the Comm'n

Check out this newly dropped op-ed from Kathleen Clyde and Greg Moore about the OCRC maps.

👇👇👇

https://twitter.com/OHorganizing/status/1437793241366241281

Scott, the president of the Ohio Educators Association, is now at the podium.

He is noting that the partisan nature of the maps, which is contrary to what 70% of Ohioans voted for in 2015 + 2018.

These constitutional reforms are not aspirational, they are law.

Up now is Kelley from our partners @ProChoiceOH!

She talks about how gerrymandering keeps us from getting policies that provide access to abortion and repro health care - things that Ohioans overwhelmingly support.

We need #FairMaps to elect repro leaders!

Up now is Rev. Joel King (nephew of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King) to demand fair voting districts for his community and the entire state.

Up now is Rep. Thomas West, President of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus who's testifying specifically about the importance of ensuring that Ohio's Black communities are adequately represented in new districts.

That's not what we see in the GOP-proposed maps.

Up now is Mia Lewis with @CommonCauseOhio!

She says that while the new Dem-proposed map is a vast improvement over the GOP-proposed (and official Commission) map, but it doesn't meet full representational fairness.

Up now is Prof. David Niven who responds to Speaker Cupp's request that we stop repeating the same talking points by saying that the GOP should stop drawing the same gerrymandered maps.

Right on, Professor!

Prof. Niven getting a lot of questions about how we balance between drawing representative districts and packing communities together.

That's a false choice - you can BOTH draw representative districts AND ALSO ones that don't unnecessarily sink Democrats of people of color.

Up next is David Pepper - former ODP Chair.

He rightfully brings up how state electeds, like Gov DeWine and Sec. LaRose, expect us Ohioans to get things done w gerrymandered legislature if even they can't do so.

We need #FairMaps.

The Commission is going to take a break after having heard from 60 witnesses.

They will break for 45 minutes and will reconvene at 1pm.

Stay tuned!

And we're back!

Up first is Senator Teresa Fedor who is reading testimony from a constituent of hers who couldn't be here today.

The constituent implores the Commission to draw #FairMaps that reflect how we vote.

There is just one Commissioner in attendance right now.

The other 6 have sent designees or have left just empty seats.

This is the final public hearing where Commissioners will hear public input about their proposed maps.

Up now is Debbie who's from Dublin - a community just outside Columbus that is carved apart from more similar communities to instead be paired with an otherwise rural, more conservative district.

Up next is Debbie, this time from @lwvohio Athens who helped gather signatures on our 2015 and 2018 reform measures.

She asks the Commission to rethink their proposed map to instead adopt ones that are fair and representative of Ohio.

Up next is Molly, Akii, and Derrick from our partner org @OHorganizing!

Molly notes that she has seen the devastating impact of the last 10 yrs of gerrymandered districts on our communities & on the issues we care about.

We need #FairMaps for a future that works for all of us.

Up next is Rev. Derrick Holmes who organizes with OOC and the Amos Project who talks about how gerrymandering dilutes the voices of brown and Black communities across the state, which leads to limited resources coming into those communities.

"Just because these lines don't impact your communities doesn't mean they don't impact ours," Rev. Holmes says.

We need #FairMaps that serve all of us, not just one party or special interests. We demand better.

Up now is Akii Butler with @OHIOStudents and a Commissioner on the OCRC (@OHRedistrict).

Akii, who is originally from the Mahoning Valley, talks about how it doesn't make sense to separate Youngstown and Warren into different districts.

Akii rightfully pointing out that mappers must ensure that Ohio's BIPOC communities have real representation. We can't do that if mappers (like the GOP's) don't even consider racial demographics while drawing maps.

Our very own AOTL Ohio State Director @KatyAShanahan is at the podium.

Katy is asking the commission to listen to Ohioans very reasonable demands: to give us fair maps.

Katy notes the maps must be fair and not rigged.

That means we need 44 Democratic House seats and 14 Senate seats.

We are not going to choose between a fair process and a fair map.

We deserve both.

"Fair districting doesn’t require us to be colorblind. We should be drawing maps to reflect the diversity of our communities. The Ohio Constitution requires that you all -- the Commission -- to draw maps that comply with federal law, including - importantly here - the VRA."

"How can you claim that your maps are constitutional when you’ve admitted you haven’t done the necessary analysis to ensure that that’s the case?"

We need to know that what we're getting are #FairMaps that meet the clear guidelines in the Constitution. That's what we demand.

Up now is Percy Squire who is again underscoring how problematic it is that the GOP admitted to not using racial demographics to ensure BIPOC communities have real representation.

The Commission is required to ensure that their maps comply with federal law; they must do analysis

Leader Sykes asks if there are requirements of the Commission related to ensuring BIPOC Ohioans have real representation.

Mr. Squire: Short answer, yes. Federal law, the US Constitution, and Ohio Constitution all require that maps don't dilute BIPOC communities.

Up next is Rick Topper (@allontheline_oh volunteer!)

Rick, an attorney, implores especially the fellow lawyers on the Commission to uphold the oath that they take to uphold the Ohio and US Constitution - not just aspire to it, but to do it.

Here, here!

Rick is detailing how his neighborhood is carved apart, so rather than being together with more similar communities, he is instead paired with communities in a different county, miles away, without much in common.

That's not a fair map.

Up next is Andrea (an @allontheline_oh vol!) who asks, "Why the heck am I here when the people in charge of this process aren't even here to listen to me."

Say it, Andrea!

Andrea also condemning Speaker Cupp for having asked us to stop repeating the same talking points when the GOP offered - as a response to the 10 mapless hearings where we talked about rep fairness - maps that'd gerrymander the GOP into another decade of the supermajority.

Andrea shown the "1 minute remaining" sign and she says, "I'm gonna go over that minute!"

Excuse us while we beam with pride at our volunteers who are showing up to give impassioned pleas to the Commission to draw us the #FairMaps that we deserve.

Andrea knocks the GOP for giving negative reviews of Dave's Redistricting - a widely-used and publicly-available redistricting tool, saying that the Commission itself didn't provide us with anything else.

If you don't like our tools, give us better ones!

As Andrea guesses that the GOP will come up with a skewed partisan index to explain how their maps claim to meet the representational fairness requirement, Leader Sykes nods along in agreement.

Show us your numbers. Show us your maps. Give us #FairMaps.

Up now is Mike who's here for his third testimony before the Commission. He says it's clear the Commission doesn't seem poised to live up to the demands of our reform measures or the requirements in our Ohio Constitution.

Speaker Cupp came back into the hearing room for about 3 minutes before leaving again and sending in a replacement.

Again, this is the LAST public hearing that the Commission is hosting to hear from us directly about maps that will impact our political future.

Up now is a witness who is tearing into (actually) nonpartisan groups like LWVO, Common Cause, and Ohio ACLU for condemning the GOP-proposed maps as being gerrymandered and unfair, but for lauding the Dems' maps.

To be fair, the Dem maps are actually much closer to being fair.

The witness just said that "Ohioans are being Syked...by the Sykes" in one of the more rude comments we've heard at these hearings.

We should also add that Leader and Senator Sykes have served Ohioans well on this Commission.

Up now is Tim (an @allontheline_oh vol!) who's here to demand representationally fair districts that live up to our constitutional requirements.

Up now is a witness who's asking about how the Commission is measuring partisanship of our state, how we measure minority representation districts - all good questions that we should've been discussing months ago!

The witness talks specifically about how Columbus' near east side (including the historically Black Bronzeville community and Linden) are cracked apart - under all proposed maps by Commissioners.

Our communities needs to be kept together, particularly BIPOC communities.

Sorry for the break - we've heard from Jen Miller (LWVO) who said her org doesn't support moving the deadline (something Common Cause testified in support of earlier today) of tomorrow.

We also heard from a witness from Hamilton County who gave specific feedback about how better to ensure that similar communities in and around Cincinnati are kept together - Leader and Sen. Sykes took notes on that input.

Up now is Mindy who implores the Commission do their jobs to pass the #FairMaps that we deserve.

Auditor Faber requests that the Commission merely stand in recess (rather than adjourning) "in case we have business to handle later today."

Sen. Sykes obliges with no further details about what that means, if other maps will be proposed, or when they might come back.