Ohio Redistricting Reform Trails By Double-Digit Margin

[TJ in Oregon]

According to a PPP Poll, Ohio's Issue 2 Trails by a 48-35 margin with 17% undecided.

Question wording:
Issue 2 would remove the authority of elected representatives and grant new authority to appointed officials to establish congressional and state legislative district lines. It would create a state-funded commission of appointed individuals from a limited pool of applicants to replace the aforementioned. The commission would consist of 12 members as follows: four affiliated with the largest political party, four affiliated with the second largest political party, and four not affiliated with either of the two largest political parties. Affirmative votes of seven of 12 embers are needed to select a plan. If the election was today, would you vote for or against Issue 2?

[TJ in Oregon]

The Cleveland Plain Dealer endorsed a No vote on the issue. Their logic was that while the current system is flawed, so is the plan to replace it. I would imagine that while newspaper endorsements are of little value in a presidential race, they carry a decent amount of punch on complicated issues few voters understand such as this.

[TJ in Oregon]

In Ohio, they can use a referrendum to overturn the district map IIRC and can amend the state constitution to change the process. However, like most things in Ohio, it will take them several attempts before most people give serious thought to the issue. Ohioans have a history of voting against things they don't understand and I'd wager less than 1% of voters remotely understood Issue 2. More favorable ballot language may have given the issue an extra 5% or so, but I have trouble believing something as long and complex as this could be passed on the first try.

Also, if we really want to fix this and get cooperation from voters of both parties, we should consider passing an amendment to change the process in the 2020 census. If the idea is driven in a partisan manner, you more or less take a good 30% of the vote out of play.