The amendment creates a new independent body, the Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission, to draw district lines for the General Assembly and the Ohio seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The 15-member commission is balanced with 5 members affiliated with each of the state’s major political parties and 5 members who are independents.

The amendment creates a bipartisan process for selecting commission members.

The amendment removes politicians and political influence from the redistricting process by prohibiting elected officials, candidates, their staffs, political organizations, lobbyists, and immediate family members of these groups from serving on the commission.

The amendment prohibits partisan gerrymandering of the General Assembly and the Ohio seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The amendment requires that each redistricting plan contain geographically congruent districts that comply with federal law and preserve communities of interest.

The amendment defines communities of interest to include counties, municipal corporations, townships, and school districts as well as communities of people with broadly shared interests and representational needs. 

The amendment prevents incumbency protection by barring any redistricting plan from considering the place of residence of any incumbent elected official or any candidate for state or congressional office.

The amendment creates an open and transparent process by requiring that all commission deliberations and actions be in public meetings, and that actions by the commission require an affirmative vote of at least 9 of 15 members.

The amendment creates a process to resolve any impasse so that the General Assembly cannot adopt its own redistricting plans.

The amendment creates a redistricting commission to replace the constitutional amendments approved by Ohio voters in  2015 and 2018.

The amendment removes elected statewide officeholders and state legislators from the process of drawing district lines for the General Assembly and for the Ohio seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The amendment creates a non-elected commission. 

The amendment adopts procedures for selecting the members of the commission that are complex.

The amendment permits the commission to hire consultants to assist in the drawing of districts.

The amendment limits the right of Ohio citizens to freely express their views on redistricting to members of the commission and the commission staff.

The amendment promises to end partisan gerrymandering but requires that the statewide proportion of districts that favor each political party correspond closely to statewide partisan preferences of Ohio voters.

The amendment does not require districts to be compact.

The amendment does not sufficiently respect the need to draw district lines that do not split counties, municipal corporations, townships, and school districts.

The amendment does not permit members of the commission to be removed by the General Assembly.

The amendment abolishes the historic tradition of having elected officials draw congressional and state legislative districts – elected officials who are directly accountable to Ohio voters.

The amendment seeks to make significant changes in redistricting but ignores the reality that redistricting is inherently political and that one cannot take politics out of politics.