Fair Maps Meeting Reminds Citizens: ‘Redistricting Is Not Gerrymandering’
For more than four decades, Ohio citizens have been fighting for fair maps for fair elections. Reform efforts date back to at least 1981, Common Cause Executive Director Caroline Turcer, said during a Bowling Green fair maps meeting on Thursday.
Bowling Green was the first stop in a three-city campaign called “What’s Mappening: A Community Conversation About Fair Maps for Fair Elections.”
The map-making process in Ohio has failed to draw maps that allow for fair elections; instead, the maps have been manipulated by those in power to insulate one political party, or commonly referred to as gerrymandering, Turcer explained.
In general, gerrymandering can be, and has been, done by Democrats and Republicans to create unfair advantages in elections and to keep their party in power.
“Redistricting is not gerrymandering, just like cooking; you start a fire, you have something hot. It is not arson,” Turcer said several times during the meeting.