Plot hatched to thwart GOP's next big election-rigging scheme

Ohio Republicans appear all but guaranteed to join the ranks of GOP lawmakers around the country, heeding President Donald Trump's call to rig congressional maps to give themselves extra seats — but Democrats may be hatching a plan to stop it, Punchbowl News reported on Monday.

The issue stems from Ohio's redistricting laws, which Republicans passed several years ago to ensure they'd retain the power to draw maps unilaterally, while creating a series of extra steps and checks to make it look as if they didn't. Under Ohio's procedure, the map must be passed on a bipartisan basis, but if no consensus can be reached, the majority party can pass its own map, but only for four years.

This ultimately happened in the last round of redistricting, but due to various circumstances, the gerrymander ended up relatively mild, allowing Democrats to win five out of 15 congressional seats. But with the legally required redraw taking place this fall, Republicans are expected to try to redraw up to three of those seats as more Republican-favoring.

"If Republicans pass their new map without bipartisan support, as expected, Democrats can force a referendum on that map by gathering roughly 250,000 signatures in the 90 days after the map is passed," wrote Punchbowl's Ally Mutnick. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is gearing up to fundraise for this effort, which is expected to be an expensive and uphill battle.

If the signatures are collected, however, the new map would be suspended until voters can approve or veto it in the 2026 election. However, then it would not be clear what the state's map would be, as the current one is expiring. "In that scenario, Democrats are hoping a state court would extend the current map through 2026. Republicans would likely ask that their new proposal take effect. There are a lot of unknowns here," Mutnick reported.

A similar battle has unfolded in Missouri, where Republicans employed a mid-decade redistricting scheme to carve up the seat held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. Activists are gathering signatures for a referendum that would likewise suspend the gerrymander there and leave Missouri's current map in place, although Republicans have employed a number of tactics to try to stop this.