Tuesday, August 3 at 7:00 PM EST
Redistricting Advocacy Training: Preparing for Meetings with Legislators & Public Hearings
Fair Districts seeks to demonstrate broad public support as a means of holding mapmakers accountable to the letter and spirit of the 2015 & 2018 ballot initiatives. Public input will be essential to the redistricting process. The Ohio Redistricting Commission and the Ohio General Assembly are required to hold hearings before passing new maps.
Join us for this online webinar/workshop which aims to empower and prepare Fair Districts supporters across Ohio to host in-district meetings with lawmakers and/or testify at redistricting hearings.
Thursday, August 5 at 6:00 PM EST
2021 County Election Prep Team Meeting
Join leaders from the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition for a monthly call about building and strengthening a relationship with your county Board of Elections. The meetings are the first Thursday of the month and are suitable for those who are already working with a BOE election prep team and those who are looking to get involved.
Some useful links:
- 2021 BOE questionnaire and a google form to submit the BOE’s answers
- Fill out this form to let us know if you are part of a BOE team — or want to be part of one!
Wednesday, August 11 at 6:00 PM EST
August Fair Districts All Volunteer Huddle
For all Fair Districts volunteers — Speakers Bureau, Community Mapping Facilitators, Sign Distributors, and All. Catch up on Fair Districts news, current actions, what’s next for census data, our mapping competition, and more. Email your questions in advance to fairdistrictsohio2021@gmail.com or bring them to the meeting!
Past Events…
July 14: Fair Districts First All Volunteer Huddle
We covered a lot during the presentation. To make it easier to digest all the information, we have put together a follow up document with complete links and additional information. We cover what is happening in the redistricting process, updates and info for volunteers, upcoming events and new activities, and more. Also included in the document are links to the slide presentation, a recording of the event, and to our website where you can find many useful links.
May 6: OVRC County BOE Teams Strategy Session
Join leaders from the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition to talk about building and strengthening a relationship with your county Board of Elections in time for this year’s primary election. This meeting is suitable for those who are already working with a BOE election prep team and those who are looking to get involved.
At this meeting, Kayla Griffin, Ohio State Director for All Voting is Local (AViL) discussed AViL’s report, “Too Many Ballots of Last Resort – Disparities in Provisional Ballot Use in Ohio’s 2020 Election.”
Here are some useful links:
- The Ohio Voter Rights Coalition statement on House Bill 294, the election bill introduced yesterday by Representative Bill Seitz.
- The piece by Alex Fisher of the Columbus Partnership: Opinion: Ohio must keep elections free and fair.
- 2021 BOE questionnaire and a google form to submit the BOE’s answers
- Fill out this form to let us know if you are part of a BOE team — or want to be part of one!
April 28: The Fight for Fair Courts: How We Can Keep Politics Off the Bench
Join the Ohio Fair Courts Alliance for a panel discussion on the partisan battle to weaponize the courts and what we can do about it. This will include a discussion of Senate Bill 80 and House Bill 149 — current attempts at the Ohio Statehouse to add partisan labels in selected judicial races.
Moderated by Camille Wimbish of Ohio Voice, panelists will include Paul Pfeifer, Executive Director of the Ohio Judicial Conference and Former Ohio Supreme Court Justice; Patrick Berry, Fellow and counsel in the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program; Fanon A. Rucker, Retired Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge; and Melekte Melaku, Organizing Strategist at the ACLU of Ohio.
Here are some useful links from the meeting:
- YouTube Recording
- PowerPoint Presentation
- Editorial Memo: Senate Bill 80
- Action Alert: Don’t politicize our judicial elections
April 22: OVRC County BOE Teams Pre-Primary Strategy Session
Join leaders from the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition to talk about building and strengthening a relationship with your county Board of Elections in time for this year’s primary election. This meeting is suitable for those who are already working with a BOE election prep team and those who are looking to get involved.
At this meeting, Collin Marozzi from the ACLU of Ohio gave a presentation on Jail Voting.
Here are some useful links:
-
Link to a recording of our conversation (it starts a couple of minutes into our meeting)
- 2021 BOE questionnaire and a google form to submit the BOE’s answers
- Fill out this form to let us know if you are part of a BOE team — or want to be part of one!
April 21: Race & Redistricting: The Voting Rights Act & Ohio Mapmaking
Join Fair Districts Ohio, Common Cause Ohio, League of Women Voters of Ohio, the Ohio Council of Churches, and the A. Philip Randolph Institute for a discussion of the federal Voting Rights Act and its impact on map-making in Ohio in 2021. Moderated by Brandi Slaughter from the Ohio Council of Churches, panel members will include Celina Stewart of LWVUS, Alora Thomas of ACLU Voting Rights Project, and Dr. Lisa Handley, international expert on race and democracy.
- Click here for the full recording.
April 15: April Fair Districts Speakers Bureau Training
Join the Fair Districts Team for a first time or refresher course on how to be a part of our Speakers Bureau. We will go over the logistics of setting up and running a presentation, review the standard presentation slides, and answer your questions.
Here are some useful links:
- Click here for the slides
- Click here for the recording
- Bookmark Speakers Bureau: Links you need (This doc has a wide range of information!)
April 8: OVRC County BOE Teams Pre-Primary Strategy Session
Join leaders from the Ohio Voter Rights Coalition to talk about building and strengthening a relationship with your county Board of Elections in time for this year’s primary election. This meeting is suitable for those who are already working with a BOE election prep team and those who are looking to get involved.
Here are some useful links:
- A recording of the conversation and the slides
- 2021 BOE questionnaire and a google form to submit the BOE’s answers
- Fill out this form to let us know if you are part of a BOE team — or want to be part of one!
March 30: Matriots-Common Cause-LWV Ohio: Redistricting and Women
Ohio will redraw districts in 2021 with new Census data and a new law in place to guide the process. This is a once-in-ten-years opportunity to get the fair districts Ohio deserves. Join The Matriots PAC, Common Cause Ohio and the League of Women Voters of Ohio to learn about the process and find out how you can be an advocate. Matriots Founding Member Ann Henkener will share her decades of work on fair districts. Baldwin Wallace professor Barbara Palmer will share her work that shows gerrymandering in Ohio is most likely the reason for the complete stagnation in the number of women Ohio is sending to the U.S. House.
Here are some useful links:
March 16: Transparency Team Training
Join us during Sunshine Week for a training focused on Ohio’s Sunshine Law and how to do a public records request.
Here are some useful links:
- Check out the slides and a recording.
- Gary Daniels from ACLU Ohio shared a few resources that are worth checking out:
- Public Records & Open Meetings: A Guide For Activists produced by ACLU Ohio to answer your questions about Ohio’s Sunshine Law
- 2021 Sunshine Laws Manual released by Ohio Attorney General Yost to mark Sunshine Week
February 22: Community Mapping Facilitator Training
For those who are interested in learning how to facilitate community conversations to create community maps using DistrictR redistricting software. Once you know how to create community maps, you can facilitate map-making in communities nearby or even across the state. This training follows on our “Mapmaking in Ohio” session from Jan 25 (see below).
Here are some useful links:
- Check out the slides and a recording.
- Sign up for a practice session with Trevor
- Fill out this FORM to sign up to take part in community mapping.
February 18: Fair Districts Speakers Bureau Training: Next Steps!
Get ready to be a part of our Fair Districts Speakers Bureau! We will go over the content of a typical presentation and answer all your questions. This training follows on our 2//9/2021 Speakers Bureau training session (see below).
Here are some useful links:
- Speakers Bureau Next Steps recording and slides for a typical presentation.
- The FORM where you sign up to be a part of the Speakers Bureau. (Remember, even if you are not keen to be the main presenter yourself, you can participate as a “buddy” or tech helper, or help by finding and signing up groups for presentations.)
February 16: Ohio Voter Rights Coalition County BOE Teams 2021 Reboot
Join Jen Miller from the League of Women Voters and Mia Lewis from Common Cause to talk about how we can help voters by forging relationships with our local boards of elections. Suitable for those who have already joined a team and those who have not.
There were no slides and no recording for this conversation, but if you would like to join a County BOE team, please submit this form.
February 9: Fair Districts Speakers Bureau Training
Learn more about the Fair Districts Speakers Bureau and get prepped so you can lead presentations and spread the word about the need for fair districts. This training follows on our 1/19/21 “Redistricting 101” session (see below).
Here are some useful links:
- Speakers Bureau Training recording and slides.
- The FORM where you sign up to be a part of the Speakers Bureau. (Remember, even if you are not keen to be the main presenter yourself, you can participate as a “buddy” or tech helper, or help by finding and signing up groups for presentations.)
- The FORM where you sign up to take part in other Fair Districts activism
January 25: Mapmaking in 2021. Community Mapping and Mapmaking w/DistrictR
For those who are interested in learning how to facilitate community conversations to create community maps using DistrictR redistricting software developed by MGGG Redistricting Lab, a research group at Tufts University. Suzanne Almeida of Common Cause led a discussion about the benefits of community mapping and a demonstration of how to use the software.
- A YouTube recording of the webinar
- Community Mapping & DistrictR Tutorial slides
- Software: districtr.org
- Legislative Service Commission overview of Ohio redistricting rules
January 19: Redistricting 101 Webinar
Redistricting 101, part of a series of webinars designed to answer your questions about Redistricting in Ohio and to train ourselves to become local experts and public speakers in the cause of Fair Districts in 2021
- A YouTube recording of the webinar
- Our Redistricting 101 slides
- A form where you can say how you want to participate going forward
- A page of redistricting resources
December 14: Mapmaking 2021
Redistricting 101, part of a series of webinars designed to answer your questions about Redistricting in Ohio and to train ourselves to become local experts and public speakers in the cause of Fair Districts in 2021
- A YouTube recording of the webinar
- Our slides
- A form where you can say how you want to participate going forward
- A page of redistricting resources