COLUMBUS, Ohio - An Ohio Senate committee on Monday approved a bipartisan plan to change the way Ohio's congressional districts will be drawn in 2021.

The Senate planned to approve the plan later Monday night. If approved by both chambers by Wednesday, Ohioans would vote on the plan in the May primary election.

Members of the Fair Districts = Fair Elections coalition said they support the revised plan but did not know yet how they would campaign for the legislature-passed ballot measure instead of their own proposal for the November ballot.

Improvements made today to SJR 5 constitute real redistricting reform, and @OhFairDistricts will support it. We wanted bipartisan compromise, which is what this is. — League of Women Voters of Ohio (@lwvohio) February 5, 2018

The Ohio League of Women Voters, Common Cause Ohio, the Ohio Environmental Council and others have been circulating petitions since last year and have reported collecting about 200,000 signatures -- two-thirds of what is necessary to force a public vote on their plan.

Boundaries for Ohio's current 16 congressional districts make little geographic sense, leading to uncompetitive races and results that don't reflect Ohio's political leanings.

Currently, both Cuyahoga and Summit counties are split into four districts.

Redistricting advocates said the compromise plan met their three standards for reform:

Both parties are meaningfully engaged in the process.

Maps can't be drawn to favor one political party or another.

Communities are kept together.

Heather Taylor-Miesle, executive director of the Ohio Environmental Council and one of the Fair Districts leaders, said the changes will lead to more competitive districts.

"When congressional members have to listen to their citizens, they don't have to just care about their votes, they have to care about what they care about," Taylor-Miesle said.

Republican Sen. Matt Huffman of Lima on Monday briefly outlined plans for the legislative fix.

Here's how it would work:

Step 1: Three-fifths of both the House and Senate including 50 percent of the minority party members would have to approve a map.

Step 2: If the legislature fails, the seven-member redistricting commission that draws Statehouse district lines would be able to draw a map.

Step 3: If the commission doesn't pass a map with at least two minority party member votes, the legislature has a second change to pass a map. In this phase, the legislature can pass a 10-year map with one-third of the minority party member votes. Or the majority can pass a four-year map without minority party support, but stricter rules apply and they must explain each decision to split a county, township or municipal corporation.

"If we're in the majority, the last thing you want to do is get to a four-year map with all of these stricter criteria and the same thing is true for the minority," Huffman said. "That's what we're trying to accomplish here -- that everyone has a reason to get in the room and work it out."

The plan also sets new rules for drawing congressional districts where there were generally none: