As of 10:37 p.m., about 4.6 million votes had been tallied. Only 45.57% of Ohio voters supported Issue 1 while 54.43% of voters opposed it, according to the Ohio Secretary of State partial results with 76.36% of statewide precincts reporting.
This story will be updated as additional results are reported by the Ohio Secretary of State.
If Issue 1 is approved by a simple majority of Ohio voters, the process by which the state draws its federal congressional and state legislative district boundaries will undergo a near-total transformation.
The amendment would ax two prior voter-approved redistricting reforms and the state’s current politician redistricting commission and install an updated set of map-drawing rules to guide a new, appointed citizen redistricting panel meant to be devoid of political influence.
Issue 1 is meant to create a more “proportional” set of congressional and state legislative districts, meaning that if Ohio’s voting patterns show that eligible voters support candidates of a political party 60% of the time, then 60% of the state’s political boundaries should favor that same political party. Its impact could sway the balance of power both in Ohio’s legislature and in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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