By Brad Brooks

(Reuters) – The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and other voting rights entities asked the Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday to force Republicans to redraw state House of Representatives and Senate redistricting maps.

ACLU argued that the Ohio Redistricting Commission’s new maps, which were approved last week by a 5-2 vote from Republican leaders, are unconstitutional. The ACLU argues that the new maps violate voter-approved constitutional amendments that were passed over the last five years. These reforms mandate that bipartisan redistricting be done to reflect voter preferences.

The suit claims that the map drawn by the Commission draws 67% of House district districts and 69% Senate districts in favor of Republicans, despite Republicans having won between 46% to 60% of the statewide vote at elections over the past decade.

Republicans from Ohio control both the House and Senate. They claim that their party won 13 out of 16 state contests over the last decade. This means it has 81%.

Alora Tom, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Voting Right Project said that they filed suit in Ohio due to “extreme partisan-gerrymander” and “blatant abuses of the people’s trust”.

Thomas claimed that Ohio’s redistricting maps were part in a larger Republican campaign to reduce voting rights. It also used gerrymandering (an approach by one political party to change district lines to retain power).

In many states redistricting was a lengthy backroom process. Both political parties have created skewed districts that are politically favorable.

Since August when data from the 2020 census was released by the U.S. Census Bureau, redistricting in the states began. The U.S. Census Bureau used this information to create the U.S. House of Representatives along with the legislative districts in the states for the following decade.