Ohio Citizen Group Sees Strong Support to End Gerrymandering
Local volunteers involved in a citizen-led effort to amend Ohio’s constitution to end gerrymandering say they have seen a strong showing of support from community members and they are confident they will get enough signatures to put the measure on the November ballot.
“Our goal is to stop gerrymandering in Ohio once and for all,” said Joyce Gibbs, a volunteer supporting Citizens Not Politicians, the group behind the push to take redistricting responsibilities away from lawmakers.
Supporters say they are well on their way to collecting the more than 413,000 valid signatures needed by July 3 to qualify for the November general election ballot. The campaign declined to say how many signatures have already been gathered.
But hundreds of volunteers, including many union members and retirees, fanned out to polling places across the state on Primary Election Day with hopes of adding thousands of signatures to the list.
“We have citizens across Ohio gathering thousands of signatures every day and are on track to meet our goal,” said Chris Davey, a spokesperson for the Citizens Not Politicians campaign. “There is energy and enthusiasm from Republicans, Democrats and Independents, who all see that the system run by politicians is broken and it’s up to citizens to fix it.”