Thread by @allontheline_oh

‼️ HAPPENING SOON (maybe?!)

The Redistricting Commission is reportedly going to come back from recess at 8pm to vote on the final state legislative maps.

We'll keep you posted as this develops, but for now we just want them to #ShowUsTheMaps.

The Commission has recessed until 9pm.

Sen. and Leader Sykes are now both here.

Speaker Cupp, Gov. DeWine, and Sen. Huffman are huddled in a back room.

Looks like Dem and Rep staff are here, so hopefully we'll see some action soon - stay tuned!

Well, we had high hopes.

Still waiting for action (at least out in the open - there’s lots of bustling in and out of a private members’ only room out of public view).

We’re now down to 0 Commissioners in the hearing room.

Staff is still here (as are we!)

GOP just dropped new maps.

https://twitter.com/joshrultnews/status/1438326861298339841?s=10

Looking at them *visually alone* looks like they still crack apart Trotwood, a primarily Black community, and drop it into rural, conservative, and overwhelmingly white Preble and Darke counties.

This despite hearing hours of testimony from resident about how that was a problem

Cincinnati still looks like it's got just one Democratic-leaning Senate seat while the three others are Republican-leaning.

As a reminder, Hamilton County went for Biden by nearly 60%.

This isn't a #FairMap.

There's one Senate district that stretches from western Cuyahoga, to Geauga, and down through Summit to the Stark County border.

Hard to understand how that doesn't carve apart communities who deserve to be kept whole in districts that make sense and reflect who lives there.

Under the new GOP maps, Republicans would likely get a whopping 72% of the Senate seats and 68% of the House seats.

They've only won 54% of the vote in the last decade.

This map is gerrymandered and BAD for Ohio.

Cupp gavels the Commission back into session.

Here we go...

Sen. Huffman introducing the Republican's amended map that offers (again) just 31 Democratic-leaning House seats and 9 Democratic-leaning Senate seats.

This despite the fact that they won just 54% of the vote in the last decade.

Huffman claims they listened to public input.

Huffman claims that the new GOP maps moves the original GOP map "much closer" to the Democratic-proposed plan.

Hard to understand how that's true when the Dem-proposed map had a seat count for Dems of 42 House and 13 Senate...

Huffman claims that the GOP maps give them just (lol) 62 House seats and 23 Senate seats.

Based on the election data in Dave's Redistricting App, those numbers aren't quite right. So maybe Huffman will explain how he got them?

Huffman makes a motion to amend the Commission-proposed plan and Speaker Cupp seconds.

Before adopting, Sen. Sykes interjects to say that while he appreciates the GOP amendments, the maps "fall far below what's fair" and objects to the amendment.

They're now voting to take new GOP map under consideration - necessary to vote on it as final plan.

They pass it along party lines.

Huffman now moving to adopt his GOP plan as the final plan for the Commission.

Leader Sykes objects.

Cupp seconds motion.

Leader @EmiliaSykesOH: "I know it's late and that we're on a time crunch," but asks for an indulgence so she can explain why she's voting no on the GOP map.

Leader Sykes opens her remarks by explaining why she wears white in important moments to give homage to suffragists.

Leader @EmiliaSykesOH notes that, as the only woman on the Commission, she took this role incredibly seriously, saying, "I bring with me those women who suffered for generations so that someone like me could have the audacity to stand up on a Commission with 6 men & 1 woman."

"To have a map that eliminates the ability for women like me to engage in a process and to not have their voices heard is not only offensive it is plain wrong."

Speak on, Leader @EmiliaSykesOH

This map "flies in the face of what the people of our state told us not once, but twice," Leader @EmiliaSykesOH says.

This is an incredibly powerful speech and we're grateful that Leader Sykes is in this position to have fought for a better Ohio.

"The people of Ohio have been mourning, they have in mourning because they haven't been able to access their government in the way in which they deserve. ...

There is in no way I can in good conscience I can vote for this map."

Leader @EmiliaSykesOH

"This is about the human right to access and to participate in the democratic process." - Leader Sykes

Yes, yes, yes.

Leader @EmiliaSykesOH makes clear that the suggestion that Huffman made that the GOP map is, in any way, close to what the Democrats proposed is preposterous.

The GOP map is not fair, it is not what we voted for, it is not what we deserved.

Leader @EmiliaSykesOH harkens back to the admission from the GOP that they didn't even consider the VRA, something that she says - through tears and powerful emotion - allows her and @DrVernonSykes to sit on this constitutionally-mandated Commission.

"This is a vote that should be an easy no. It'll be an easy vote for me. I won't lose a second of sleep voting no on this. Because at some point when the government refuses to listen to the people who elect us and direct us, there are consequences." Leader @EmiliaSykesOH

Leader @EmiliaSykesOH ends by saying, "I will always stand on the side of the people who brought me here."

Thank you, Leader, for standing with us.

Up next is @DrVernonSykes who starts by saying that he comes to us with a heavy heart as someone who's worked for #FairMaps since the 1980s, to ensure that the Constitution included provisions that protected us against what the GOP is about to do.

"I was hopeful that the people in place when we were contemplating this would have the courage and the insight to promote fairness." Sen. Sykes

This is a pointed remark for Sen. Huffman who co-authored the 2015 constitutional reform measure.

"And so it was the wisdom of the constitutional provision to put in a different concept of representational fairness ... we wanted to make sure it was understood," which is why it's literally defined in our constitutional language to understand the intent behind it @DrVernonSykes

"I can't stand up here and support anything but fairness."

@DrVernonSykes talks about the callousness of the GOP for taking even more seats than they deserve in an insult to all Ohioans

.@DrVernonSykes rightfully points out that he attended every single public hearing, notes that hundreds of Ohioans who came out to testify - going past the time limits, applauding when they told us to stop, talking through tears to demand #FairMaps that better serve Ohio

"As badly as I'd love for us to have a 10-year map, a fair plan, there's no way that I would slap the people in the face that promote fair districts and put them in the misfortune that we've been suffering for decades for another 10 years." @DrVernonSykes

Up next is Sec. LaRose who claims he's as disheartened as the Sykeses are tonight because he wanted bipartisanship.

"Not enough members of the Commission wanted to come along with that," he says as one of the 5 GOP members voting yes on a gerrymandered map.

LaRose "I'm casting a yes vote today, but I wish it didn't have to be this way."

It's actually quite easy...you could vote no and instead stand up for #FairMaps!

Gov. DeWine also disheartened that they're not going to get 10-year maps and yet stands to vote for a 4-year map.

He says he thinks that with time they could've produced a map that would be "more constitutional" but he "was wrong."

DeWine saying that he thought even earlier today that the parties could come together to have arrived at a bipartisan agreement, saying that the GOP and Dem maps aren't that far apart - "They think they are but they're not."

They are and DeWine's voting for gerrymandered maps.

Gov. DeWine is sad that they're not getting bipartisan consensus and yet he's still voting for a map that's even more gerrymandered than the one we've got now...

Auditor Faber up next with a question for the sponsors to determine whether there is an explanation (per Constitutional requirements) for the proportionality required in the maps.

Huffman says that they're not required to have that convo until there's a 4-year map...

"This has been an interested process" - Faber

Well that's one way to put it...

Faber now leaning into the idea that there's no way other than to pack Dems into a few districts because we all cluster around each other in major cities.

Fun fact: you don't actually have to pack voters to dilute their political power - no matter where they live.

While Faber is talking, we just want to reiterate that Gov. DeWine legitimately said that he thinks that the Commission really could have come up with maps that were "much more clearly, clearly constitutional."

😲🤯

Faber now talking about competitiveness on the map - he says "it's not bad."

He does, though, say that there are things about the map that he doesn't like - including that his hometown isn't kept together in a district that it's normally been with. Nevertheless...

"Moral of the story is we don't always get what we want. ... This map isn't that bad. It's not that good either," says Auditor Faber who is likely about to vote for the GOP gerrymandered map.

Faber also expresses disappointment that we aren't getting a 7-0 bipartisan map, saying he spent hours trying to get there.

Still, he plans to vote for the likely 5-2 GOP gerrymandered maps.

In a 5-2 partisan vote, the Ohio Redistricting Commission votes - a minute late - to adopt the GOP's gerrymandered map.

There you have it. We've got a 4-year set of maps.

Huffman now moving to adopt the GOP's statement to explain how they met the representational fairness requirement.

Motion is seconded with Sec. LaRose asking to speak before they vote.

LaRose points out that Huffman appears to be measuring partisanship using two different methodologies, so asks for an explanation.

Huffman says there's no requirement to measure it in just one way.

LaRose asks Huffman why he's only just now getting this information - minutes after the midnight deadline - when he's asked for this information for days, which we guess would hold more weight if he hadn't just voted for the GOP's gerrymandered maps...

Huffman claims LaRose had this information 5 hours ago (claims it was available "on the website") - to be clear, these maps dropped onto the Commission's website around 10:25pm tonight.

Huffman now leaning back into the "the census was late" excuse, so we will again reiterate that more than 20 Ohioans and groups (like @OHRedistrict and the Ohio Senate Dems) drew better, fairer maps and submitted them to the Commission using the same data all before Sept 1...

Huffman now bringing up that he offered to amend the Constitution to give Commissioners more time.

We opposed that when he suggested it because it'd have given the GOP supermajority legislature the ability to come up with their own timeline in this process...

.@DrVernonSykes wants to make clear that the statement is merely reflective of the majority party's opinion and not something that he'd agree with when it comes to measuring representational fairness.

Huffman says minority party an also enter statement about representational fairness and Leader @EmiliaSykesOH asks when the GOP would like them to do that.

Now standing at ease while GOP members discuss this.

Dems have the statement prepared and are entering it into the record now.

Their statement effectively says that the GOP maps are egregiously unconstitutional because they are partisan gerrymandered maps.

Leader @EmiliaSykesOH now reading into the record the Democrats' statement about their own definition of representational fairness, the issues with the non-transparent process, and the GOP's gerrymandered maps.

Cupp now taking a vote to accept the GOP's statement of explanation about how the GOP measured partisan fairness.

Sen. Sykes wants to verify that both statements can be accepted without objection so it's clear that they're voting to adopt it in the record, not to support content

Commissioners unanimously vote to adopt the majority and minority's parties statements about representational fairness into the record.

Nearly 30 minutes past the deadline, the Commission is adjourned.