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Don’t allow officials to ignore voters’ will

DEAR EDITOR:

We just witnessed in Ohio a rigged system of redistricting that showed us a professional, partisan, cynical disregard for the will of the voters, undermining representative democracy.

The plan recently passed by the state Legislature would give 13 Republican to two Democrat delegate seats in the U.S. Congress. That represents 87 percent of the congressional seats to Republicans, when they only received 53 percent of the votes in the 2020 election and lost 120,000 registered voters over the last four years. That does not represent the will of the voters.

Remember, in 2018 that 75 percent of Ohio voters backed an amendment to the state Constitution to assure redistricting would be bipartisan; however, the Assembly disregarded the will of the voters. This plan is said not only to violate the state Constitution, but possibly the Voting Rights Act also. Our elected officials did exactly what the state Constitution forbids. They want to control elections before votes are cast. All this happened because the Republican members of the redistricting committee would not participate, and therefore it was turned over to the state Assembly to complete.

I don’t care what party affiliation you may have, this total disregard for the will of the voters and for representative democracy cannot be acceptable. I’m sure this plan will be challenged in the courts, but we as voters, no matter what party, cannot be satisfied with that. We must hold our elected officials accountable. We are fortunate to live in a democracy, so let’s all work hard to keep it that way.

EUGENE GRUPP

Polan

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