Nearly 8 in 10 Ohioans live in uncompetitive legislative districts

Brennan Center redistricting expert Yurij Rudensky just coauthored “Ohio’s Gerrymandered State House Districts Lack Electoral Competition,” an analysis of the lack of electoral competition built into the state’s district lines going into the 2024 election.

Although Ohio’s race for U.S. Senate is likely to be competitive, Rudensky and his coauthor Gina Feliz found that the down-ballot races probably will not be. Among their findings:

77% of Ohio residents live in districts where elections for state representatives aren’t in serious dispute, because the race has only one candidate running and due to the party advantage from district lines.

In 15 of the 99 districts in Ohio, the ballot will have one major party candidate for state representative running without opposition from the other party.

62 of the 84 districts that are contested give one party an expected 55% or more of the vote.

The authors observe, “An overwhelming majority of Ohioans will cast ballots this November in legislative districts that were drawn to lock in general election outcomes,” and they point to state legislators’ control of the redistricting process as a major reason for the lack of competition and choice across the state.

Rudensky and Feliz point to the Citizens Not Politicians ballot initiative to reform the redistricting process that created the current districts, a measure meant for the 2024 ballot that’s now in the signature-gathering phase. It would take map-drawing away from the law makers and lobbyists and give it to an independent commission made up of citizens.