{"id":2648,"date":"2025-10-01T15:59:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T19:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/?post_type=article&#038;p=2648"},"modified":"2025-10-02T10:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T14:25:11","slug":"common-cause-ohio-testifies-at-joint-committee-on-congressional-redistricting-hearing","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/articles\/common-cause-ohio-testifies-at-joint-committee-on-congressional-redistricting-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Cause Ohio Testifies at Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting Hearing"},"template":"","class_list":["post-2648","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"","featured_image":"","article_type":153,"authors":"","related_issues":[62,420],"related_work":false,"location":38},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":"","name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\">Mia Lewis testifies before the Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting<\/b><\/p>\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-49405 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/OH_Mia_MapsTestimony_093025-1024x561.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"561\" \/>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Co-chairs Bird and Timken, Committee members, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Mia Lewis, and I am the Associate Director of Common Cause Ohio. Common Cause is dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And so of course, one of the most important foundational aspects of our democracy is fair elections and fair representation \u2013 and fair elections and fair representation are only possible when we have fair voting maps.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My submitted testimony is in support of both Senate Bill 259\/House Bill 442 and the congressional map submitted by the Equal Districts Coalition because these maps do not unduly favor one political party or another. But we all know neither of these maps is going to be considered and voted on by this committee.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ohio has a process laid out in the Ohio Constitution to create fair maps, but this hearing today is evidence that you are not following that process. According to the Constitution, by September 30th \u2013 TODAY \u2013 this committee is supposed to have worked together in a transparent fashion to create a <\/span><b>bipartisan <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">map to be discussed, debated, and commented on by Ohioans in public hearings \u2013 and then voted on.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b>Where is that map?\u00a0<\/b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without a map to discuss and ultimately vote on, this hearing is a sham. Democrats submitted a map three weeks ago, and just under 100 other maps have been submitted by the public\u00a0 as well. What\u2019s the hold up?\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s obvious to the public that you have a map ready to be introduced at the time that is most advantageous to you. Where is it? Why hasn\u2019t it been introduced? Why isn\u2019t it on the screen so that Ohio citizens at this hearing can see it, analyze it, and make concrete suggestions for improvements that would keep communities together and create fairer representation \u2013 as required by the Ohio Constitution that you all took an oath to uphold?\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We want to get started. Show us the map!<\/span>\r\n\r\nWatch the <a href=\"https:\/\/ohiochannel.org\/video\/ohio-joint-committee-on-congressional-redistricting-9-30-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">full hearing here<\/a>."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_add_component","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_add_component":null},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_work","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_work":{"heading":"Work","manually_curate":false,"work":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_related_articles","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_related_articles":{"heading":"Updates","button_text":"See all Related Articles","manually_curate":false,"articles":null}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Common Cause Ohio Testifies at Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting Hearing - Common Cause Ohio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/articles\/common-cause-ohio-testifies-at-joint-committee-on-congressional-redistricting-hearing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Common Cause Ohio Testifies at Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting Hearing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/articles\/common-cause-ohio-testifies-at-joint-committee-on-congressional-redistricting-hearing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Ohio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-02T14:25:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/OH.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/articles\/common-cause-ohio-testifies-at-joint-committee-on-congressional-redistricting-hearing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/ohio\/articles\/common-cause-ohio-testifies-at-joint-committee-on-congressional-redistricting-hearing\/\",\"name\":\"Common Cause Ohio Testifies at Joint Committee on Congressional Redistricting Hearing - 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