Yost wants minority Ballot Board court filings tossed

(The Center Square) – Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost wants the state Supreme Court to throw out a filing by the minority members of the Ohio Ballot Board, saying those members lost a vote and the majority wins.

Yost responded to the filing Tuesday after the two Democratic members of the board leveled charges of malpractice at Yost and said board chairman Secretary of State Frank LaRose acted overly partisan when establishing ballot language for a proposed constitutional amendment that would change how the state establishes voting districts.

The board voted along Republican Party lines to approve the language 3-2.

“If the losing members of a voting board can relitigate their loss in court, we don’t have a democracy, we have government by judiciary,” Yost said. “A multi-member body speaks through its majority vote.”

Yost serves as legal counsel for the Ballot Board, which is being sued over language for Issue 1 in the upcoming November election.

Two days after the state filed its response to the suit, state Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson and state Rep. Terrence Upchurch – who voted against the ballot language – filed their own response to the lawsuit.

The amendment would change how the state establishes congressional and statehouse districts, removing the process from the Ohio Redistricting Commission – a political group made up of five Republicans and two Democrats – and putting into the hands of a nonpolitical citizen committee made up of 15 people, consisting of Republicans, Democrats and independents.

Recently, the Ballot Board – which has three Republicans and two Democrats – established language for the ballot that Democrats say is false and misleading.

Citizens Not Politicians, a bipartisan coalition pushing the amendment, submitted proposed language for the ballot that included 15 members who have no disqualifying conflicts of interest and have shown an ability to conduct the redistricting process with impartiality, integrity and fairness.

It also said each redistricting plan shall contain single-member districts that are geographically contiguous, comply with federal law, closely correspond to the statewide partisan preferences of Ohio voters and preserve communities.

The Ballot Board approved language based on Republican Party lines stating that the new commission would be "required to gerrymander" the districts.

Citizens Not Politicians filed suit, and Democrats on the board believe Yost does not represent their interests and should have appointed outside council.