Um-hmm? We asked Ohioans to guess the shape of their legislative districts.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Question 1, an anti-gerrymandering amendment that could radically change the composition of the Ohio House of Representatives, is on the ballot for this election.

I’ve tried to simplify what the game will actually do. Tell me what they look like?

Over the past few weeks, we’ve spoken to dozens of viewers and readers, stopping them at random and showing them clippings. I showed clippings of Senate Districts 18, 27 and 28.

“Oh, I think it’s an animal,” responded Lois Osborne, a Lake County voter.

“I have no idea,” said Ron Robertson of Paynesville. — School parking?

“Half a gun,” added voter Marcelo Marquez.

Some of the most popular answers shown in our video are various animals, weapons, ladders, a marijuana smoking device, and a toilet.

“Well, actually, these are all counties in Ohio,” I told each person.

Answers? Mostly bewilderment, disappointment and some anger.

Robertson was surprised to learn that State Senator Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) represents not only him and all of Lake, but also parts of Cuyahoga County – towns and villages more than an hour away.

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“I had no idea it came this far south,” Robertson said. “It’s quite strange because they’re not really part of this area at all.”

He and Marquez don’t think the regions have the same needs at all.

“I think they have no idea they belong to the same area,” Marquez added.

Senate District 18 starts in North Madison on the edge of Lake County, runs through Paynesville, Mentor, Wickliffe and dives into the eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County – from Mayfield to Pepper Pike, Solon, Bedford, west to Independence, down. to Brecksville and then to Newburgh Heights.

“It’s very remote, and not many of us have even been there,” she said of Newburgh Heights.

So we walked from one end of the area to the other. From Madison to Newburgh Heights it’s an hour’s drive without traffic.

“Is this one of the Rorschach tests?” Helen Harris, a Cuyahoga County voter, asked me.

He and Cam Jones were discussing the clippings, wondering if the areas I showed were staircases, other types of buildings, or shadows.

“Maybe I see a picture of a horse’s head,” Harris continued, looking at SD 27.

“I see a person’s face,” Jones added.

When I told them the answer, they laughed in disbelief, indicating that they should have thought about it. But it’s no laughing matter, Harris said.

Harris and Jones had no idea that the senator lived an hour away or that he was a staunch Republican.

“It makes me a little angry that this exists,” she said. “Indeed, in 2024—almost 25—our society still faces similar disparities.”

You can see the differences even just by driving through each area with houses, buildings and police presence.

The median household income in Kirtland Hills in Lake County is $150,000, while in Newburgh Heights in Cuyahoga it is $50,000. One of them is a Republican stronghold, the other a Democratic stronghold.

The Cuyahoga areas that make up District 18 now have deep blue areas such as Pepper Pike, Bedford and Bedford Heights, 90% of which voted for President Joe Biden in 2020.

“We all differ in our desires, our likes and dislikes, and our moral issues that we have to deal with,” Harris said.

This is not just a challenge to voters. When the map was first created, it shocked Chirino.

“Many of the voters who voted for me four years ago are no longer in my district,” he told me.

When he was elected in 2020, Chirino did not have Cuyahoga County, but rather the more rural areas of Portage and Geauga. With new cards coming out in 2023, he had to adapt.

“I have worked very hard to become known in new communities in my area,” he said. “When the map changes and we have new communities that we now represent, it will just make us work harder, and I don’t mind.”

So why does the area look the way it does?

Case Western Reserve University election law professor Atiba Ellis explains that this has to do with the way Ohio draws its legislative and congressional maps.

“Gerrymandering is essentially the ability to draw cards to make a party more powerful than it is popular,” said Ellis, a nonpartisan pundit. “The problem is that we can draw maps to create more districts that are easier for Republicans to win than Democrats.”

Former President Donald Trump won Ohio in both elections by eight points, with 51% of the vote in 2016 and 53% in 2020.

Ohio is clearly a red state now, but it’s nowhere near as red as its legislative base, Ellis explained.

“They were able to draw districts so that there are more districts working to benefit Republican officials than roughly the number of people who vote Republican in the entire state,” he said.

The Ohio State Senate consists of 33 members: 26 Republicans and 7 Democrats. Republicans make up nearly 80% of the House of Representatives.

The Ohio House of Representatives consists of 99 members: 67 Republicans and 32 Democrats. Republicans make up nearly 70% of the House of Representatives.

Even when Gov. Mike DeWine won re-election in a landslide in 2022, he only received 62% of the vote. In 2018, he won with 50% of the vote.

Ellis shows that when these Democratic strongholds stand out in conservative-leaning Lake County, it weakens their votes.

“I’m breaking up a large group of people who vote one way so that group can’t come together and exercise their voice,” he said. “So what that means is that people who end up on the bad side of the gerrymander end up getting less representation.”

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Chirino denied that there was gerrymandering in his district or that his constituents would receive less representation.

“I don’t see any differences,” the deputy said. “Their needs are different and their interests are a little different, but I have no problem representing all these different communities.”

Since Lake County has more rural and urban areas, he believes Cuyahoga could be viewed in the same way.

He argues that the redistricting process is a “math game” because the average Senate district should have about 350,000 to 375,000 people.

“Communities need to be moved back and forth or moved around a little bit so that we don’t have someone with 500,000 people and someone with 200,000 people,” Sirino said.

Osborne, a Lake County voter, doesn’t believe that, so she voted in favor of the first question.

“I’m very upset because obviously this was done to elect a certain person,” she said. “Gerrymandering is essentially election fraud, it’s fraud.”

Ohio lawmakers are currently drawing maps that directly affect them and their colleagues.

We told you what Issue 1 will do.

What does a yes vote on Ohio Question 1 mean? What does it mean to refuse to vote?

CONNECTED: What does a yes vote on Ohio Question 1 mean? What does it mean to refuse to vote?

A yes vote on Question 1 would create a 15-member Ohio Citizens’ Redistricting Commission (OCRC) made up of Republicans, Democrats and independents who broadly represent the state’s diverse geographic areas and demographic groups.

It bars current and former politicians, political party officials, lobbyists and major political donors from participating in the commission’s work.

It requires fair and impartial districts, making it unconstitutional to create voting districts that discriminate against or favor any political party or individual politician. It also empowers the commission to operate through an open and independent process.

Commission members will draw maps based on federal law and also take into account past election data on party preferences. The commission will ensure that each district has a fairly equal population and that communities of interest remain together.

A “no” vote on the first question would mean rejecting the independent commission’s proposal and maintaining the current scheme. Voting no could also mean you’re hoping Republicans will keep their word and come up with a “solution” to improve the system in the coming months.

Chirino urges everyone to vote no, saying it negates accountability because commissioners cannot be removed by vote; only a fellow Commissioner can attempt to remove them.

This argument was made by other politicians we interviewed in September.

What is Ohio Issue 1? We explain the redistricting amendment.

CONNECTED: What is Ohio Issue 1? We explain the redistricting amendment.

He also said this is just a way for Democrats to gain control.

“They can’t get a majority in the legislature and they can’t get statewide offices,” Cirino said. “This is another method of trying to dictate the layout of the cards.”

Ellis said Issue 1 isn’t perfect, but it’s much better than the current system.

“The core of the gerrymandering problem is that politicians choose their voters, rather than voters choosing politicians,” Ellis said. “Issue 1 helps solve this problem by creating a citizen-led commission that is not beholden to any politicians.”

Most voters we spoke to don’t trust any politician; thus, they don’t want Republicans or Democrats in charge of creating the maps. Even voters who didn’t know what Issue 1 was about said they wanted regular citizens to be in charge of creating the maps.

That needs to change,” Harris said. “It’s too partisan in my opinion.”

Follow MEWS Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau o Twitter And Facebook.