Last weekend, The Ohio Redistricting Commission took up the task of reshaping the districts to satisfy both political parties. Two independent mapmakers who were hired by the commission revealed their first attempts of the maps on Saturday, but they are still working hard to meet their deadline of Monday night.
Among the reporters covering this historic event were former members of Otterbein student media from the communications department. Andy Chow, general assignment state government reporter for the Statehouse News Bureau, and Andrew Tobias, a politics reporter for cleveland.com, both graduated from Otterbein in 2008. Their days consisted of livestreaming the event and covering important topics of discussion as they came up.
“Covering something like Ohio’s redistricting process feels like I'm watching history in action,” Chow said. He mentioned how this event was once closed off from public view, as citizens did not get to see the processes and discussions that have gone into how Ohio’s map is redistricted. “I think it’s important that the public has access to this,” he said.
“It’s been really interesting to be covering such a consequential story,” Tobias said. He is not confident that the commission will be able to settle on a map by the March 28 deadline, so the task will have to be handled in the courts. ”Whatever happens, somebody is going to sue over it,” he said.
Both Chow and Tobias agree that the newfound transparency of this event is important to the citizens of Ohio. It is still in question if the Ohio Redistricting Commission will settle on an agreement, or if this will become a legal battle settled in the courts.
