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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio might look to California for a solution to its gerrymandering problem.

The Golden State has succeeded in removing politicians from the drawing of congressional district boundaries, something Ohio lawmakers have refused to do.

So, Californians end up with districts designed to reflect the common interests of their communities, unlike many Ohioans whose districts only reflect the re-election interests of politicians and their parties.

Which process sounds better to you?

Scroll below to learn more in Part 3 of a cleveland.com series - Out of Line: Impact 2017 and Beyond. In search of a way to rid Ohio of gerrymandering, we will highlight over the next several months how other states and countries go about drawing political district lines.

- By Rich Exner, cleveland.com

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Rich Exner, cleveland.com

The Ohio way

In Ohio, new congressional maps are drawn after each census, with the approval of the Ohio House, Ohio Senate and the governor.

The Republicans controlled the process the last two times, creating the maps used for the 2002-10 and 2012-20 elections. Before then, party power was split; but the boundaries always were drawn by politicians.

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The California way

A 14-member independent commission – no elected officials allowed - draws the congressional district lines in California.

The method was established by a voter referendum in 2010, with 61 percent of California's voters approving what was dubbed the "Voters First Act for Congress."

"The representatives don't choose their voters anymore," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, an expert on politics and elections, and a senior fellow at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

Jeffe's view is shared by Helen Hutchinson, president of the League of Women Voters of California.

Before reform, the elected leaders who worked redistricting maps were "just trying to protect people who were incumbents," she said. "While it was the Democats who were doing the drawing, they were probably just as good at protecting the Republican incumbents as they were Democrats."

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California Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2011.

Associated Press

If not elected, how is the commission chosen?

The All About Redistricting website, an encyclopedia of sorts on the topic by Loyola of California law professor Justin Levitt, outlines the selection process this way:

A panel of three state auditors creates a pool of 60 potential commission members - 20 Democrats, 20 Republicans and 20 people who are neither Democrat nor Republican. The four legislative leaders – two Democrats and two Republicans – may then each cut two people from the pool. From the remaining 52 to 60 candidates, three commission members are randomly chosen from the group of Democrats, three are randomly chosen from the group of Republicans and two from the group of independents. The first eight members chosen for the commission then add six others from the field – two Republicans, two Democrats and two from neither party - to reflect the diversity of the state.

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California Auditor Elaine Howe removes one of the ping pong-style lottery balls representing one of the first members of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission during the November 2010 drawing for the first eight commission members.

Associated Press

Who cannot serve on the commission?

California’s commission takes the no-politician business seriously. It bars current politicians, former politicians and pretty much anyone who even thinks about becoming a politician.

Here are some of the key restrictions:

No elected officials.

No one who has changed party affiliation in the last five years.

No one who within 10 years has been a candidate for a federal or state office, or a member of a party's central committee.

No one with an immediate family member who in the last 10 years has been a candidate for federal or state office, or a member of a party's central committee.

No officer, employee or paid consultant to a federal or state party candidate.

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Dr. Gabino Aguirre of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission discusses drafts of new political district maps under consideration in 2011.



Associated Press

One more way to limit one party's control.

Approval of California’s congressional maps requires at least three Democrat votes, three Republican votes and three votes from people who are not affiliated with either party.

The map drawn in 2011 was approved by the commission in a 12-2 vote.

In the event of a stalemate, the California Supreme Court selects a group to draw the map.

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Associated Press

Do the voters have any say?

California voters do have a say if they don’t like the map the commission creates. The map can be challenged through a referendum.

This was attempted in 2012, but the group behind the effort failed to get enough signatures to force a vote on the congressional maps.

Enough signatures were collected on a similar effort to question the maps for state Senate districts. The campaign to overturn the state Senate maps received financial backing from the state Republican Party.

At the ballot, however, voters overwhelming decided to keep the commission's map-drawing work in place – by a vote of 72 percent to 28 percent.

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Rich Exner, cleveland.com

What criteria must the commission use?

California's districts are supposed to be compact and communities with shared interests should be kept together. This extends beyond consideration of just city or county lines. A community could mean an industrial area, a farm area, an area of similar living standards, or an area with similar transportation patterns.

Ohio’s current congressional map would never pass this California requirement:

"a contiguous population which shares common social and economic interests that should be included within a single district for purposes of its effective and fair representation. Examples of such shared interests are those common to an urban area, an industrial area, or an agricultural area, and those common to areas in which the people share similar living standards, use the same transportation facilities, have similar work opportunities, or have access to the same media of communication relevant to the election process."

Ohio uses no geographic criteria. This is why communities and counties have been split in crazy ways to create districts that stretch more than 100 miles in some cases - merely to maximum the votes for one party or the other.

In California, creating districts that represented community interests was more important than creating competitive races, said the League of Women Voters' Hutchinson.

"People talk a lot about competitive seats," Hutchinson said. "We didn’t put that in as a criteria. But you now have communities who have a chance to elect people who represent them. You tend to live near people who are like you."

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Among the 53 congressional races in California and 16 in Ohio last year, 18 were decided by a margin of less than 20 percentage points. All but one of these 18 races were in California.

Rich Exner, cleveland.com

Competition in California - some tight races

California in 2016 had some tight races in districts where votes really mattered, including Republican Darrell Issa's razor-thin 1,621-vote win over a Democratic challenger. The margin in Issa's race was less than a percentage point - 50.3 percent to 49.7.

Democrat Ami Bera won by just 2.4 points, Republican Jeff Denham by 3.4 point, and Democrat Nanette Diaz Barragin by 4.4 points. In all, 16 California races were closer than any Ohio race.

Though no seats changed party hands in the most recent election – the breakdown holding at 39 Democrats and 14 Republicans – there had been some earlier shakeups with the current maps. A dozen congressional members either retired or have been voted out of office.

One reason cited by a Washington Post story for the limited turnover in party control of seats is that the districts were drawn with community interests in mind, so they tend to lean one way or another. Yet, the results show, the leanings are not as great across the board as in Ohio.

A map of California’s districts (shown above), illustrates the strength of the Democrats on the Pacific Coast and the strength of the Republicans throughout most of the eastern side of the state.

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Portion of a sample General Election ballot in Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles County

California's top-two primary

In addition to depoliticizing the drawing of the congressional lines, California has made other changes that ensure that elections in districts dominated by one party are decided in general elections rather than in party primaries. California has what is called a "top-two primary," where all the candidates are on the same primary ballot. The top two finishers, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the General Election. This came about as a result of a 2010 voter-approved change in the state constitution, advocated by then state Sen. Abel Maldonado. Maldonado argued at the time that the change would improve the chances of moderate candidates like him, providing relief from less moderate primary challengers from their own parties, said USC's Jeffe. In seven of the 53 California congressional races last year, Democrats faced Democrats in the General Election. There were no cases of Republicans facing Republicans in the General Election. In Ohio, Republican and Democratic primaries determine the finalists for the General Election. Since all of Ohio districts were drawn to heavily favor one party or the other, the primary can be more important than the General Election.

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Rich Exner, cleveland.com

Competition for voter support in Ohio - almost none

Ohio’s congressional maps are designed to allow almost no competition between the two major parties – 12 seats for Republicans and four for Democrats.

Even the closest Ohio race in 2016 wasn't close at all – decided by a whopping margin of 18.4 percentage points.

More fairly drawn districts, an Associated Press analysis found, would have resulted in an 11-5 or 10-6 advantage for the Republicans – not the more lopsided 12-6 makeup.

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The Associated Press examined the impact of gerrymandering in each state and found the 2016 vote in California more closely reflected statewide political party preferences than votes in most states.

Associated Press

California scores near the best in national test

The 39-14 Democrat-Republican split of California’s congressional delegation is what would be expected based on the statewide vote, an Associated Press analysis found earlier this year.

The AP used a formula that is now part of a U.S. Supreme Court gerrymandering case out of Wisconsin to evaluate 2016 results from each state. Among the 18 states with at least 10 congressional seats, only Illinois scored better than California, and only slightly so.

USC's Jeffe said California's two reforms - creation of the independent map-drawing commission and the top-two primary system - must be taken into account together in judging the results.

But regardless, the majority party - in California's case the Democrats - no longer hold all the cards.

"What we have now is way more pure than what it was when the legislature structured their own districts," Jeffe said. "Republicans wouldn’t be allowed any where near redistricting if it was in the hands of the state legislature.”

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Rich Exner, cleveland.com

Previously

Earlier in Out of Line: Impact 2017 and Beyond.

And this week, Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich joined the fight in the Supreme Court, arguing against political gerrymandering.

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The term gerrymander dates to this 1812 cartoon in the Boston Gazette.

Rich Exner, cleveland.com

What's next

A petition-drive is underway to place a constitutional amendment on the Ohio ballot in November 2018 to change the rules for drawing congressional lines. The amendment calls for geographic criteria to be used in drawing congressional district, but would keep the elected officials in charge of the process.

Over the next several months, cleveland.com will continue to highlight how other states, and other countries, draw their political district lines in search for the best path for Ohio.

All stories will be published at this link.

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Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner.

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