Equal Districts Coalition Launches "Real Gerrymandering Videos" Series

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2021

Contact: Rachel Coyle, 419-351-5844 (call/text), coyle@innovationohio.org

COLUMBUS — Today, the Equal Districts Coalition — a unified group of 20+ Ohio advocacy organizations engaged in the 2021 redistricting fight — launched a new video series to document the impacts of rigged district lines in Ohio and push for fair, representative maps in 2021.

The first video in the series features Mindy Nagel, a Cincinnati resident whose house is split in half by two different congressional districts. The East side of her property is in District 1, while the West side is in District 2.

"When we try to contact our representative....we get an automatic reply from House.gov saying we aren't in his district....so it's difficult for us to contact our rep. They only want to hear from people who are in their districts, but they don't even know who's in their districts, because of the way this line is drawn," Nagel explains in the video.

Cincinnati is Ohio's third largest city, and its county contains a high concentration of Democratic voters. However, Ohio's district maps are currently rigged (or "gerrymandered") so that Democratic voters are split (or "cracked") into two different congressional districts and combined with Republican voters in outlying areas. Cincinnati is therefore represented by two Republican Congress members, and zero Democrats.

"In our state, and in many states, the representatives choose their voters, instead of the voters choosing their representatives, the way it should be," Nagel notes.

The Equal District Coalition's "Real Gerrymandering Stories" series will continue throughout the remainder of Ohio's 2021 redistricting process. Ohioans are encouraged to submit their own gerrymandering stories here.

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The the Equal Districts Coalition includes the Ohio State Conference of the NAACP, Ohio Organizing Collaborative, the Ohio Environmental Council, Innovation Ohio, the Ohio Student Association, ProgressOhio, All On the Line-Ohio, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, Ohio Council of Churches, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, URGE – Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, LEAD Ohio, the Ohio Women’s Alliance, the Ohio Federation of Teachers, Ohio Education Association, CAIR-Ohio, Campus Vote Project, For Our Future Ohio, Ohio Unity Coalition, Equality Ohio, The Freedom Bloc, and more.