COLUMBUS – Most Ohio voters are thinking about the economy or health care when they cast their ballots in the midterm election.

But there’s another big issue looming in the background: whether Ohio’s district maps will be gerrymandered for another decade.

Yes, Ohio already voted for redistricting reform -- twice. But politicians will still be in charge and have the final say on maps that will shape Ohio's political landscape for many years.

Whoever is elected governor, secretary of state and auditor will be part of a new seven-member panel drawing Statehouse district lines in 2021.

State senators elected now will weigh in on the next congressional map. And the governor elected in November -- likely to be either Republican Mike DeWine or Democrat Richard Cordray -- will have veto power over that map.

Democrats have made gerrymandering a part of their pitch to voters to upend years of GOP rule in Columbus. Republicans might not be as vocal, but they're thinking about redistricting too.

“This is a high-stakes political process that both parties care very much about, all the way up to the highest levels," Sen. Frank LaRose, a Republican running for secretary of state, said.

What’s at stake

Republicans controlled both congressional and Statehouse redistricting processes in 2001 and 2011, the last two times Ohio updated its maps. Democrats, who refused to compromise on reform in 2009 because they thought they'd hold the redistricting pen next, were effectively shut out of the process.

The result: districts have consistently been won by the party they were drawn to favor. Republicans have held 12 of Ohio’s 16 congressional seats since 2012 despite receiving 56 percent of the vote statewide.

Ohio has districts like the 9th, called the “snake on the lake,” which stretches from Toledo to Cleveland, and the 1st, which splits Cincinnati and divides Hamilton County. Summit County, in Northeast Ohio, is represented by four congressmen but none live in the county.

Republicans regained control of the Ohio House and hold super majorities in both Statehouse chambers.

So it’s understandable that redistricting has become a major issue for Ohio Democratic candidates and that national Democrats have taken an interest in changing the process.

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, headed by former President Obama’s attorney general Eric holder, backed the congressional reform measure on the May ballot. The group also gave the maximum $12,707 contribution to Democrats running for Ohio governor, attorney general, auditor and secretary of state.

Auditor candidate Zack Space, a former Democratic congressman, said he was talking about redistricting long before the Holder's group got involved. Space said gerrymandering has made primary elections the main event and, as a result, politicians are more extreme in their views and can't compromise or even talk to each other.

"Both parties bear responsibility now to do the right thing and doing the right thing is working for a government that can function well and restore faith and confidence that’s been lost in this process," Space said. "Donald Trump’s mantra that the system is rigged rings true for a lot of people and justifiably so."

The Libertarian Party candidates -- Travis Irvine for governor, Robert Coogan for auditor and Dustin Nanna for secretary of state -- say they're better suited to draw lines because they're not obligated to either major party.

New rules

The opposite might have happened had Democrats been in charge. Both parties agreed in 2014 there had to be a better, fairer way to draw the lines. The General Assembly put before voters constitutional amendments changing the redistricting process for Statehouse districts (Issue 1 in 2015) and congressional districts (Issue 1 in May 2018.)

Both set new rules for carving up the state into districts including limiting how counties and cities can be split. Both require votes from minority-party politicians to approve maps.

The redistricting commission, which will map Statehouse districts, will have seven members instead of five, including at least two from the minority party in the General Assembly. Republicans are expected to keep control of the legislature, so if Democrats can get two of the three statewide seats, they'll have the upper hand.

State Rep. Kathleen Clyde, a Democrat running for secretary of state, said two components of new process are especially important: keeping communities together and ensuring representational fairness. The latter, a favorite buzzword of reformers, means the breakdown of partisan-leaning districts should mirror past voting behavior averaged over several years of elections. No one knows exactly how that will be computed or applied in 2021.

"There is still room for partisan gamesmanship and we need to make sure we have leaders who are dedicated to transparency and fairness at all costs," Clyde said.

Republican auditor candidate Keith Faber, a state representative, doesn't like the term "representational fairness," and said mapmakers shouldn't create districts for the sake of partisan balance.

"We don't want to create another type of gerrymandering... to pick up some kind of a balance of voters that breaks up regional interests, local governments and political subdivisions," Faber said.

More:Everyone complains about congressional gerrymandering. Ohio just did something about it.

What the candidates would do

Ann Henkener, a longtime redistricting expert for the League of Women Voters of Ohio, said the new rules will make redistricting more fair and bipartisan, but people involved will have to make some hard decisions about how to break up counties and cities.

Which candidates are best suited for that responsibility?

"Ones that know how to follow the rules laid out in the Ohio Constitution and having some from both parties," Henkener said. "Having folks who are willing to work across the aisle and compromise would be really good attributes for people who are going to be drawing the maps."

Here's what you need to know about the major party candidates' positions on the issue.

Governor

Mike DeWine (R): DeWine, Ohio's attorney general, supported the congressional redistricting measure in May. DeWine's running mate, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, has advocated for redistricting reform since he served in the state legislature a decade ago. "The rules are pretty clear -- the voters said that the redistricting process should be done in a bipartisan way and when I am governor there will be an expectation that the new district maps honor the voters' wishes," DeWine told The Enquirer through a spokesman.

Richard Cordray (D): Cordray weighed in several times on social media while state legislators hammered out the congressional redistricting reform proposal. "As governor, I'll use my role in the redistricting process to ensure that we finally have fair and competitive maps that put the voters back in charge of our democracy -- not the special interests or the self-serving politicians," Cordray said through a spokesman.

Auditor

Keith Faber (R): Faber was the No. 2 state senator when the 2011 maps were drawn. Emails from the time show he was angling to change the boundaries to move his Celina home from the 8th District, held by then-House Speaker John Boehner, to the 4th District held by Congressman Jim Jordan. Faber, now a state representative, said last week he wanted to keep Grand Lake St. Marys whole within one district.

Faber and three other lawmakers introduced a bipartisan redistricting reform proposal in 2012, but it failed to pass the House. After the legislature passed Statehouse reform in December 2014, Faber, then Senate president, was hesitant to move ahead with changes to the congressional process.

Zack Space (D): Space represented Ohio's 18th congressional district from 2007 to 2010. Ohio lost two seats in the 2011 redistricting process, and Space's constituents were divided among five districts.

Secretary of state

Frank LaRose (R): LaRose voted for the gerrymandered map in 2011 as a state senator, but he says now he did so with a pit in his stomach. LaRose said the vote made him redouble his efforts for reform, and he introduced legislation the following session to change it. After the legislature passed the state legislative district reform in 2014, LaRose pushed for similar changes to congressional redistricting, breaking with GOP officials who were urging a "wait and see" approach.

Kathleen Clyde (D): Clyde, a state representative from Kent, helped lead the effort to overturn the 2011 congressional map. Since then, she introduced several bills to reform the redistricting process. Clyde and the Democratic candidate for attorney general, Steve Dettelbach, have called for the 2021 mapmaking to be open and transparent, with regular public meetings and reports and the ability for the attorney general to take action if politicians get out of line.