Does Your Vote Count?

“Democracy is not a spectator sport.”  Lotte E. Scharfman former League of Women Voters President of Massachusetts

The Anti-gerrymandering Movement Needs You! Gerrymandering is the process of manipulating district boundaries to give an unfair advantage to the governing political party over the opposing party. In so doing, gerrymandering predetermines the outcome of our elections and negates the voting power of the people. In Ohio, we have had our votes manipulated to give the best possible result to the governing party. Ohio would have one or two more Democratic representatives in Congress and an extra five Democrats in the Ohio House had our congressional districts not been gerrymandered. In another election cycle in which Democrats were in the majority, this situation could easily be reversed. Now is the time for action.

Fortunately, the League of Women Voters and Fair Congressional Districts for Ohio are working to repair this essential voting disparity. A petition drive with bipartisan support has the momentum to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2018 ballot to amend Article XI of the Ohio Constitution. The amendment calls for a shift in the responsibility of drawing districts to the bipartisan Ohio Redistricting Commission that was established by a majority (71.5 percent) of Ohio voters in 2015. Currently, the state legislature draws congressional districts, resulting in a strictly partisan exercise in commandeering votes to the majority party’s advantage. 

Consider this your call to action. Become a part of this historic grassroots movement that has already gathered more than 100,000 valid signatures to reshape Ohio’s congressional districts. Help is needed to scour the county and beyond for the 305,591 valid signatures needed to put this issue on the ballot. The League will train you in signature-gathering and identify events at which you can find voters. You can do this as much or as little as you want; the only thing you can do wrong is to do nothing.

For more information, go to the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland website: http://www.lwvgreatercleveland.org/

Kathleen Baylog

Parma, Ohio