Sending Voided Voting Map –

Columbus, Ohio (AP) – A Federal Judicial Council on Friday ordered Ohio to conduct a primary on Aug. 2 using the third set of state house maps approved by the Ohio Distribution Commission, despite the Supreme Court’s plan to state.

The court acted after giving Ohio a deadline Saturday to produce a new legislative map, a three -judge South Ohio District Court jury said in its decision.

This deadline will not be met because the committee controlled by Parliament will not hold meetings.

“We knew in the beginning that it was hard to choose a way,” District Judge Amul Tapar said with a 2-1 majority.

“And between the dispute between government officials and the delay in the case, our options are limited,” Tafar wrote. “So we chose the best of our bad choices.”

The federal court’s decision came in a lawsuit brought by a group of Republican voters who first tried to bail out the May 3 legislative primary by using the commission’s third district lines, which was also deemed unconstitutional.

A primary directive for 88 state electoral councils will be mailed Saturday, said Rob Nichols, spokesman for Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, head of state elections and a member of the redeployment commission.

Federal Judge Algenon Marble upheld the decision Friday, noting that the state Supreme Court reiterated this week that the third map remains unconstitutional.

The best option left is a map compiled by two experts, one elected by Republicans, the other by Democrats, Marble said.

The two men – Douglas Johnson, president of the National Demographic Corporation, and Michael MacDonald, professor of political science at the University of Florida – were almost done when the commission abruptly postponed the work and handed out another map. Over the past four days, the two have been paid $ 450 per hour to create new job maps, which they can see in stages online.

The Ohio Map Battle takes place against the backdrop of the political mapping process that each state must conduct to reflect population change following the census. A combination of Republican leg procrastination and legal squabble It extended its redeployment for the 2022 election season and delayed Ohio’s legislative primary. The maps were due to be completed last fall.

The 2015 constitutional amendment, which was fully approved by voters, asked the commission to try to avoid partisan favoritism and try to proportionally divide constituents to reflect Ohio’s political composition, which is roughly divided into 54% Republicans and 46% Democrats.

Republican commissioners argue A series of maps they sent back The court issued these requirements. According to GOP calculations, the boundaries would form a 54-45 Republican majority in the Ohio House and an 18-15 Republican majority in the Ohio Senate. Democrats protested their numbers, saying many of the Democrats ’constituencies were too tightly divided.

The court’s decision on Friday was disappointing, said state Senator Vernon Sykes, an acronym for Democrat and co-chair of the redistribution commission. But he mentioned that the decision only affects this year’s election.

“The Ohio Redistribution Commission still has a responsibility to create fair constitutional maps for the rest of the decade and I will continue to work toward that goal,” Sykes said.